Patricia Canning worked in the areas of both psychology and education, marrying the two into a lifelong passion for finding better ways to educate, with her main concerns always being children and families.

Canning’s work and the methods she used have been called groundbreaking. An educator who was never done learning herself, Canning went into the field to meet with families and teachers.

Lynn Frizzell was her research assistant for close to 15 years, and her good friend.

“You can’t work with her for any length of time without becoming her good friend and family, really,” Frizzell says.

Canning was always there to help governmental and non-governmental organizations evaluate the programs they were implementing to assess how well they were working.

“That’s what she was most passionate about … to know that we were offering programs that were doing as they intended to do,” says Frizzell.

“She was very proud of the work she did.”

Although work at the university was important, it was with families where Canning learned the most, and because of that was able to offer the most guidance — asking people what they needed, what they thought would work and how they could work together to create it, Frizzell said.

“She never, ever walked in anywhere like the expert,” says Frizzell.

“The things she would talk about … moments of insight when she would talk to a family.”

Frizzell said Canning worked with families in the Dominican Republic at one point in her life, and 30 years later was still in touch with them and considered them friends.

“That’s the kind of person she was.”

Her husband, Richard Cashin, says the elements of her nature came from the heart of outport Newfoundland. It was the most vulnerable who Canning always cared about, he said.

“Her life was a true manifestation of the social gospel,” says Cashin. “It was the essence of her life. Compassionate, giving, caring.”

Canning was 65.

josh.pennell@thetelegram.com