Wendy Ann Cornwall

Wendy Ann Cornwall passed away peacefully at the Victoria General Hospital on October 7, 2023 after a brief illness. Wendy taught economics at both Dalhousie University and at Mount Saint Vincent University, where she retired as Professor Emerita in the Department of Economics in 2004. Wendy was predeceased by her husband, John Cornwall. She is survived by her sister, Jill Hoffman; by her children, Isabel (Roberto), Ian (Frances), and Daniel (Elizabeth); her grandchildren, Matthew and Charlotte; her nephews Paul and Neal, and niece Kathryn and by John’s children, Anne (Lowell), Paula, and Morgan (Patty); and grandson, Logan. Wendy was born in Oxford, United Kingdom in 1938 to Florence and Percy Gubbs. She showed early academic promise, winning a scholarship to the Milham Ford School in Oxford as a teenager. After marrying, she emigrated to Canada in 1960 living in both in Canada and the United States before settling in Halifax in 1967. Wendy returned to school gaining a bachelors degree, magna cum laude, from Mount Saint Vincent University in 1972. She made a direct entry into the PhD program at Dalhousie University, winning successively a Killam Scholarship and a Canada Council Doctoral Fellowship, before graduating in 1978. Wendy taught first at Dalhousie University where she remained an honorary adjunct professor until 2011. She was offered tenure at Mount Saint Vincent University, taking a position of Assistant professor in the Department of Economics in 1978. As her research record grew, so did her teaching and administrative responsibilities and she rose to Head of the Department of Economics in 1985, holding that position until her retirement. Wendy married John Cornwall, professor in the Department of Economics at Dalhousie University, in 1984 and the two built a house in Purcells Cove. Together they formed a formidable team in the field of economics, publishing a number of books including, Economic Recovery for Canada: A Policy Framework (1984) and Capitalist Development in the Twentieth Century: An Evolutionary-Keynesian Analysis (2001). Their research partnership continued until John’s death in 2008. Wendy and John were both very active gardeners, devoting much of their free time to the creation of an acre of woodland plantings of rhododendrons, azaleas, and other herbaceous plants in Purcells Cove. They were also staunch members of the Atlantic Rhododendron & Horticultural Society, Wendy serving as the president of the Society for some time. Wendy will be greatly missed. She was outstandingly clever and deeply accomplished, publishing over 100 papers in the field of economics. In academic matters she could be very exacting but she always retained a great sympathy for the challenges faced by her students. Yet, despite all her professional accomplishments, she regarded her children and grandchildren as her greatest achievement and this is how she wanted to be remembered. The family would like to express their gratitude for the devoted care that Wendy received at both the Halifax Infirmary and the Victoria General Hospital. Wendy supported Hospice Halifax and it is requested that in lieu of flowers donations be made to this very worthy cause.

Wendy Ann Cornwall

October 11, 1938 - November 7, 2023