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Black Isle teacher and 'pillar of community' Sheena Munro honoured after locals show mark of respect in Fortrose


By Louise Glen

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A BLACK Isle woman who loved her community has been fondly remembered by her colleague and friend.

Sheena Munro, who died aged 82 on 18 November, after a short illness, was a passionate advocate for community and modern languages.

Friend Ivor Sutherland said: "She was without question a much-respected and much-loved pillar of the community who had over the years made a huge and long-lasting contribution to its cultural life and development."

An honours graduate in French and German of the University of Aberdeen, Mrs Munro was a teacher by profession. She taught languages in schools as diverse as the Aberdeen High School for Girls, Fortrose Academy and Culloden Academy.

Mr Sutherland said: "She was a consummate professional, a highly accomplished linguist and an inspiring, innovative and creative classroom practitioner.

"In due course, Highland Council was shrewd enough to recognize and exploit her professional skills and her leadership potential by appointing her to the post of regional adviser in modern languages.

"This was an important and challenging role which she undertook with the utmost relish. Her new post was made for her, and she was made for it."

He continued: "Many a languages teacher has cause to be grateful to Sheena Munro for her professional help and support at times of difficulty."

Following her formal retiral she continued on a voluntary basis to help individual pupils who needed extra tuition or who wanted to start learning a new language later in their school career.

Mr Sutherland said: "Once a teacher, always a teacher certainly applied to Sheena Munro!

"There can be no doubt that Sheena Munro was very much a people person. She had a caring and compassionate personality together with an abiding interest in helping others. Her work for the Church of Scotland was legendary both locally and nationally and she also served for a spell as Session Clerk in her local church.

"She was an active and perceptive member of the writer's group and an enthusiastic participant in the annual Saint Boniface Fair.

"Sheena was always there for others and her popularity in the community was abundantly demonstrated by the throng of people lining the street to pay their last respects as the cortège made its way to the cemetery in Fortrose."

He continued: "Her first love was for her extended family, her husband Graham, her daughters Catriona and Clare and her grandchildren William and Lucy. She will be sorely missed by her family, by her close friends, by the Fortrose and Rosemarkie community and by all those others whose lives she touched. Dear friend and colleague, go well."

While her funeral service was held under coronavirus guidelines, many people turned out on the street in Fortrose as her cortege passed, a silent mark of respect which was acknowledged gratefully by the family.

Sheena Grant Munro, nee Simpson, teacher, born: 22 January 1938 in Peterhead.

Died: 18 November 2020 in Inverness.


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