During a crisis, Margaret Strongitharm would often let out a little amused laugh. It was her way of letting those around her know that nothing was so serious it couldn’t be met with some degree of levity.

She was always cool under pressure, calm in a dire situation. Some called it meekness, but it was the kind of meek that disarmed, even reassured people, when there was conflict.

“She was the type of person who would walk into a barroom brawl, ask people to sit down, and they would sit down,” said Ron Cantelon, MLA for Nanaimo-Parksville in a 2006 speech in the legislature. “Her manner may have been meek, but she was never cowed and never taken off her game.”

Nanaimo Mayor Gary Korpan, who was first elected to council in 1984 along with Strongitharm, said her patience was a key virtue.

“She was a classic peacemaker,” said Korpan. “She always found common ground among a motley crew of colleagues.”

Beneath her meekness was strength, a self-possessed assuredness that all would be OK, that the goal or task was attainable. Her devotion to truth and hope often enabed her and those around her to achieve those goals.

The Port Theatre is an example.

There was a time when the theatre, a dream of Strongitharm’s, was on the brink of failure and the sailing was far from smooth. The outcome looked bleak. Money was short and the city was losing patience with the project.

“There was no theatre then,” said Cantelon, who worked with Strongitharm on the Nanaimo and District Harbourfront Society, now the Port Theatre Society. “It was a dream Margaret was able to imbue in us as a reality.”

The rest, of course, is history.

Those traits made Strongitharm a Nanaimo icon. She died Tuesday at the age of 91.

The Port Theatre and her participation on the Nanaimo Arts Council was just one love she followed.

For more than 50 years she set an example for the community by volunteering in the health-care, human rights, education, cultural and women’s issues communities.

She served on Nanaimo city council from 1985-1990 and was also a school trustee. She was named Nanaimo’s Woman of the Year in 1968.

“One of the key issues I remember is that she was instrumental in having smoking banned from indoor public places in Nanaimo,” said Korpan. “Her background was in nursing and people’s health was very important to her.”

Her efforts didn’t go unrecognized.

She received an honourary doctorate of laws from Malaspina University-College, a room named after her at her beloved Port Theatre, the Freedom of the City award from Nanaimo city council in 1996 and her volunteer efforts were rewarded with the Order of Canada in April 2000.

“She did a lot of things, but I remember her most as a good mom,” said her son Bruce.

Strongitharm was married to her husband Ted for 55 years and together they had four children. Mardi, the only daughter, predeceased her.

Ted, who died Oct. 19, 1998, practised law in Nanaimo from 1948 to 1992.

A service will be held at St. Paul’s Anglican Church on Saturday (Oct. 18) at 2 p.m.

reporter2@nanaimobulletin.com