Obituary of Allen Selby

After several years of suffering from Severe Vascular Dementia, Allen Selby of Fredericton, passed away at Fredericton Hospice surrounded by friends and family. He was 79. A teacher by profession, he began his career in Saint John at Simonds Regional High School in 1957 and then Saint John Vocational School. In 1966 he joined the Faculty at Teachers College, Fredericton which later became the University of New Brunswick, Faculty of Education. His work as a professor of Speech and Drama spanned twenty-four years until his retirement in 1990. He encouraged the performing arts in classrooms and on stage and was the founder of UNB’s d'Avray Hall Noontime Series, Chairman of Fredericton’s Onstage Series at the Playhouse and a panel member of the Canada Council Touring Office. He was a board member of the Canadian Youth and Child Drama Association as well as the New Brunswick Drama League. He was a long time supporter of the Fredericton SPCA and the Beaverbrook Art Gallery and the Saint John Jewish Historical Museum and its community. After completing undergraduate degrees at the University of New Brunswick, he was awarded a Beaverbrook Teachers Overseas Scholarship, attending the University Of London Institute Of Education. He later completed his graduate training at the University of Missouri in Columbia. In his private life he was an avid theatre, opera and concert goer, a lifetime collector and appraiser of antiques and was frequently involved as advocate for issues of public equality. He is survived by his husband of 44 years, Stephen Carter of Fredericton, a half brother Robert Selby of Saint John, his dearly loved sister-in-law Anne Focsaneanu of Ottawa, friends too numerous to mention and several inlaws and three loving Goddaughters. He was pre-deceased by his sister Anne Selby (1986) and his mother Rachel (Columbus) Selby. (1982) The funeral service will be held at Brenans Funeral Home, 111 Paradise Row, Saint John, and N.B. on Wednesday November 1, 2017 at 2pm. Interment will follow immediately in the Shaarei Zedek section of Fernhill Cemetery, Saint John, N.B. For those who wish, donations to the Fredericton SPCA or the Saint John Jewish Historical Museum, Saint John N.B. would be appreciated. Online condolences may be made at www.brenansfh.com. Thank you to those who showed kindness and compassion towards him and looked after him during his final journey, especially Tracey Mann, Stacy McLeod and Eva Morton from Bayshore Homecare. For those who wish to pay their respect during the week, Shiva, a period of mourning, will be observed at the family home, 202 Inglewood Drive, Fredericton beginning after burial, where friends will be welcomed any time after 11am each day. Shiva will not be observed from sundown Friday to Sundown Saturday.