Sherrill Cheda, former Mags admin and founder of Emergency Librarian, dies
One of the early arts administrators and advocates on behalf of the Canadian magazine industry, Sherrill Cheda, died early Saturday morning of complications from leukemia. She was 72.
Cheda was well known not only for her work at the executive director of the Canadian Periodical Publishers Association (a precursor to today's Magazines Canada) but also earlier as one of the founders (with fellow librarians Phyllis Yaffe and Barbara Clubb) of a somewhat off-the-wall publication called Emergency Librarian. It operated outside of the "approved" literature and combined a feminist sensibility with reviews and coverage of issues in the library profession. It grew out of a surge of feminist interest at the 1972 Canadian Library Association conference and became one of the “women-owned and published library magazines . . . in a profession run by women but still ruled by men,”“ according to Celeste West, a San Franscisco librarian who founded EL's equivalent in the U.S., the Booklegger. ("A Conversation with Celeste West,” Technicalities 2, no. 4 (April 1982).
A passionate Canadian cultural nationalist, Cheda had immigrated to Canada with her draft dodger husband in 1967 after earning her MLS at the University of Indiana. In addition to working with the magazine industry, she wrote a column for Chatelaine magazine and helped found the New Feminists in the early '70s as well as working for the Ontario Arts Council. She also wrote for the York University journal Canadian Woman Studies.
Cheda remained involved in the library community, serving on the newsletter committee of the national Ex Libris Association until she was hospitalized. She leaves her second husband, Karl Jaffary, a lawyer and former Toronto city councillor, sons Marc and Andrew and two stepchildren, six grandchildren. Her funeral will be at 4 p.m. at Humphrey Funeral Home on Bayview Avenue in Toronto.
Cheda was well known not only for her work at the executive director of the Canadian Periodical Publishers Association (a precursor to today's Magazines Canada) but also earlier as one of the founders (with fellow librarians Phyllis Yaffe and Barbara Clubb) of a somewhat off-the-wall publication called Emergency Librarian. It operated outside of the "approved" literature and combined a feminist sensibility with reviews and coverage of issues in the library profession. It grew out of a surge of feminist interest at the 1972 Canadian Library Association conference and became one of the “women-owned and published library magazines . . . in a profession run by women but still ruled by men,”“ according to Celeste West, a San Franscisco librarian who founded EL's equivalent in the U.S., the Booklegger. ("A Conversation with Celeste West,” Technicalities 2, no. 4 (April 1982).
A passionate Canadian cultural nationalist, Cheda had immigrated to Canada with her draft dodger husband in 1967 after earning her MLS at the University of Indiana. In addition to working with the magazine industry, she wrote a column for Chatelaine magazine and helped found the New Feminists in the early '70s as well as working for the Ontario Arts Council. She also wrote for the York University journal Canadian Woman Studies.
Cheda remained involved in the library community, serving on the newsletter committee of the national Ex Libris Association until she was hospitalized. She leaves her second husband, Karl Jaffary, a lawyer and former Toronto city councillor, sons Marc and Andrew and two stepchildren, six grandchildren. Her funeral will be at 4 p.m. at Humphrey Funeral Home on Bayview Avenue in Toronto.
posted by D. B. Scott at
9:58 am
1 Comments:
No doubt about it, Sherrill Cheda was a fascinating person. If you knew her, it is likely you knew her views on whtever topic was being discussed. She did not hold back.
However you have Karl's number wrong. He was number three. I was her first husband and father of our sons, Marc and Andrew Perry. Each of us mourns her passing.
Noel Perry
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