PREWITT, Ann Russe - Former director of Camp Northway, a wilderness camp in Algonquin Park, died peacefully on March 9 of natural causes. She was ninety-seven years old. In the twenty-six years she directed Northway, Mrs. Prewitt impacted the lives of countless young persons. “Had it not been for Mrs. Prewitt, I never would have had the courage to…” often begins the sentences of those who knew her in her prime years, according to her daughter Judy. Born Ann Harwood Russe in St Louis, Missouri, she attended John Burroughs School, where she was a star athlete, winning state and regional competitions in fencing. She graduated first in her class at Bradford College, studied at Smith College, and later received a BA in Urban Studies at York University. Politically active in St. Louis as the campaign manager of democratic Senator Stuart Symington during the years in which he was a prominent opponent of Senator Joseph McCarthy, she was a vigorous debater all of her life on political and social questions. The most important experience of her youth was attending Camp Northway, the oldest continuously operating girls’ camp in North America. There she became an expert canoeist and canoe-tripper under the mentorship of the founder of Northway, Fanny L. Case. She bought the camp from Miss Case in 1951 and, piling her four small children, nanny Lucie, and dog Pocahontas in a Chevrolet station wagon drove from St Louis to Canada to begin her career as camp director. In the words of her daughter Beth, “She had the courage of her convictions, whether it was buying and running a camp she believed in or in being active in politics.” Retaining her athletic ability well into middle age, she challenged Northway campers every summer to compete with her in performing the balancing feat she became known for: standing on her head in a canoe. One winter when she was in her sixties she trekked by herself over the ice into Cache Lake, Algonquin Park, carrying a tape recorder so that she could record the sounds of wolves howling in the night. A similarly bold venture took place in her eighties when, despite difficulty walking, she flew to Cuba to deliver two suitcases of medical supplies. “She lived an original life,” says her son Brookes. Mrs. Prewitt’s love of the Canadian north woods stayed with her all of her life. On the door of her log cabin on Cache Lake was pinned a piece of birch bark with words she had copied by hand from John Ruskin: “We need the tonic of wilderness…”. Former editor and publisher of the Canadian Camping Magazine and an Honorary Life Member of the Ontario Camping Association, Mrs. Prewitt enjoyed many affiliations. She was a member of Colonial Dames in Maryland and, in Niagara-on-the-Lake, the Conservancy, the Shaw Guild, the Newcomers Club, and the Garden Club. She supported many charities, including Alice Sloan’s School in Kentucky and Families for Children, which helps orphans in India. Enjoying membership in two bridge clubs, she derived great pleasure from playing bridge until well into her nineties. Her marriage to Arthur Lansing Prewitt of Minnesota produced five children: Arthur and Frederick Prewitt, both of whom predeceased her, and three surviving children: Dr. Elizabeth Yates of Ottawa, Ontario, Dr. Judy Eiland of Boston, Massachusetts, and Brookes Prewitt, L.L.B. and J.D., of Niagara-on-the-Lake, who, together with his wife Joan Dodds Prewitt, now directs Camp Northway. Mrs. Prewitt is also survived by eleven grandchildren and three great grandchildren.
A short Memorial Service will be held on Saturday May 26, 3:00 pm, at MORGAN FUNERAL HOME, 415 Regent St. Niagara-on-the-Lake L0S 1J0. After the Service there will be a gathering to honour Ann at 294 Regent St. Niagara-on-the-Lake. In lieu of flowers donations to the Ann Prewitt Northway Voyageur Fund may be sent to Camp Northway at 294 Regent St. Box 1184, Niagara-on-the-Lake Ontario, Canada L0S 1J0.

Memories, photos and condolences
may be shared at www.morganfuneral.com