A prominent local author and longtime librarian in Owen Sound has died.
Andrew Armitage passed away at his home in Leith on Thursday as a result of complications from previous illnesses. He was 82-years-old.
Armitage moved to the Owen Sound area in the 1970s and worked as the city’s chief librarian for 29 years. He retired in 2000 but then took up a second career with his late wife Lorraine Brown creating museum exhibits and layouts.
An avid outdoorsman and well-known local author, Armitage wrote the Georgian Bay Explorer, penning thousands of vignettes that were featured on radio station AM 560 CFOS for years. He also wrote many books on local topics that were published by The Ginger Press and worked as a book reviewer for the Owen Sound Sun Times, preparing over 1,400 columns.
Richard Thomas, a local author, historian and city councillor in Owen Sound, says Armitage was a great friend and mentor of his who will be dearly missed in the community.
“He was really a guy who moved to this community and adopted it as his own and started to tell us stories about ourselves,” Thomas says. “He was a deep researcher and he helped to develop the library into what it is today.”
Tim Nicholls Harrison, current chief librarian at the Owen Sound & North Grey Union Library, says Armitage influenced generations of writers, readers and historians both locally and nationally.
“Andrew has been a mentor for so many people during the nearly fifty years he lived, worked, researched and wrote here. He believed in the power of books and value of free libraries as a foundation of our democratic system,” Nicholls Harrison says. “Indeed, our library is the largest union library in Ontario by geographic region served and membership, a testament to Andrew’s commitment to our community. He has had a profound influence and will be sincerely missed.”
Ross Kentner, a former general manager of Bayshore Broadcasting, read the Georgian Bay Explorer on the CFOS airwaves for many years. He says Armitage gave a voice to the region that it did not have up until then when he moved here in the 1970s.
“He came to the area and just fell in love with the Bruce Trail and all of the natural wonders of Georgian Bay,” Kentner says. “He brought our storied past to life, cultivating appreciation for our heritage and inspiring a new generation of Grey-Bruce writers.”
There are no funeral plans at present.
