Sadie Roebuck

From “New Life Members,” Summer 1983, the newsletter's own account of the two Life Memberships given at that year's Annual Meeting — Bea Austin's and Sadie Roebuck's, printed one after the other on the same page. Every name below is checked against the Society's own certification and officer registries.

A member since the beginning

“At the 1983 Annual Meeting Bea Austin, as Membership Chairman, presented a Life Membership to Sadie Roebuck in recognition of her long and valued service to CSCL. Sadie joined in 1951 and therefore has been a member since the beginning of the Society. She achieved her Associate standing in 1955 and became a Fellow in 1962.” The Society's own registry agrees exactly: Associate 1955 and Fellow 1962, dated by the Spring 1962 newsletter's own “New Fellows & Associates” notice and confirmed by the Society's later c. 1985 list of Associates and Fellows.

• Joined the Society in 1951 — “a member since the beginning of the Society”
• Associate 1955, Fellow 1962
• Served on the Executive Council “for quite a number of years” alongside her husband Cecil Roebuck, the Society's Treasurer through the 1960s
• With other Executive members, helped establish new Branches of the Society
• Demonstrated at Annual and International Meetings and for other branches; a C.N.E. demonstrator in 1962
• While employed at Capitol Findings in Toronto, helped members obtain tools and supplies
• Named to the Society's Executive Council again in 1977, at least fifteen years after her Fellowship

The Executive Council, and a husband who served it too

“She served on the Executive Council for quite a number of years, along with her late husband Cecil, who was for many years the Treasurer of CSCL. Together with other Executive members they visited and helped to establish new Branches of the Society.” The register bears this out at even greater length than the one page suggests: Cecil J. Roebuck appears as Treasurer in the newsletters of every year from 1962 to 1969, as Toronto Branch President in 1967 and again in 1969–70, and on the Executive Council or as Advertising Committee chairman back to 1954 — elected an Honorary Associate in 1962 in his own right — “while Cecil is not a craftsman, he has given many long years of service to our Society.” Sadie's own name recurs too: a C.N.E. demonstrator in 1962, and one of fourteen members named to the Executive Council for 1977–78 by the 27th Annual Meeting's Nominating Committee, fifteen years after her Fellowship.

Demonstrations, and a source of supplies

“She has demonstrated at Annual and International Meetings and for other branches. While employed at Capitol Findings in Toronto she was always willing to try to obtain the tools and supplies required by our members. Sadie has been a very helpful and valuable member of our organization.”

Cecil Roebuck is called “her late husband” in this same 1983 notice: he died in 1973, the Fall 1973 newsletter mourning his passing (p8). Nothing later in the 1950–1991 newsletters names Sadie Roebuck beyond the register entries above.

From “New Life Members,” the Summer 1983 newsletter, page 10.