Dorothy Steiner
Once with sky blue eyes and a shock of white hair, Dorothy Victoria Steiner, formerly Dorothy Johnston died on December 14, 2020 at Holy Cross Manor in Calgary where she had been living for 6 years. Dorothy was born on May 24, 1923 in Indian Head Saskatchewan in 1929 to Etta and Archie Johnston. Her elder sister Jean Hammond and younger sister Boyne Hall both passed away earlier this year. Her younger brother’s Dick and Bill Johnston died before them. Dorothy is survived by her youngest brother Tim Johnston; by her son Shep; and her granddaughter Elle—if one attends to genealogy proper and one shouldn’t, so I continue—her daughter in law Robin Bone, her ‘adopted’ daughter Maria Bertolotti, a half-sister (kind of) Beth Liljestrom, the Johnston’s, the Johnston-Viens’, Johnston-Anic’s, the Keglowitsch’s, the Hammond’s, the Hall’s, the Shearer’s, the Morrison’s. In short, survived by an extended family and not without love’s dreadful regime pointing to many others that go unnamed.
Dorothy grew up in Lethbridge and first came to Banff in the mid 1950s on a weaving scholarship at the Banff Center. They hadn’t heard of it, so Donald Cameron hired her on as a secretary or assistant. During these years she lived at old Mrs. Orr’s house on Buffalo St. She would marry Hans Steiner who was the business manager at the Banff School and before that the librarian at the Salzburg Seminar, a sister school that permitted his immigration from Austria. Chalet 4 was a haunt. Aileen Harmon was a friend, so too was Robert Fruh, Harry Wohlfarth, Walter J. Phillips, Coleen Anderson, Mrs. Stewart. In the late 1950s when lots were only $175, Dorothy and Hans became neighbors with Johnny and Helen Porter in Harvie Heights. With Quinn and Dutchy Smit, they bought their own wooden drilling rig to dig water wells. They should have witched too. Skoki was a favorite ski tour in those days, and Assiniboine seems to have been far more accessible back then, even without a helicopter. After living in Australia for a while, Dorothy and Hans moved to Edmonton in the late 1960s and worked at the University of Alberta for 20 years in the faculty of Commerce and the Department of Geology, respectively.
Dorothy returned to Harvie Heights in the 1990s and made a life with Tuzo (bloody dog), Kono (darn cougar), and a cat (Mariah), many dear friends and so many nieces and nephews. Up to the Lonely Pine was her favorite hike. Patrick O’Brian her favorite author. Her house was a good doss for climbers and skiers over the years and she always threw a good party and played a respectable game of boules. On her 80th birthday, Dorothy and I bivvyed on the autoroute in France and spent a beautiful morning with people we didn’t know. I glimpsed then, the woman she was before I knew her or as I knew her: always lots of fun, but also out-going, living beyond herself. Somewhere in her 80s is how I will best remember her. The old photos in a purple turtleneck, or at an Australian beach cooking in the combi van speak as if from another world. Even the little voice asking Ma Dot to read another book is fading. She was 88 for her last overnighter at the Elizabeth Parker Hut at Lake O’Hara. She didn’t make it to Lake McArthur that trip, but after a long life that had its adventures just waiting to hear the stories about her favorite spot counts too. She will be missed.
