Linda Elizabeth Leckie
Lecko to all of us September 23, 1957 - August 21, 2025
A friend said that the stars in the sky over Algonquin that Thursday night were magnificent. We who love her do not believe this to be a coincidence.
Born in Hamilton, Lecko was five when she first visited her aunt’s cottage on Cache Lake in Algonquin Park. The next summer, she became a one month camper at Camp Wapomeo on Canoe Lake, which would be her summer home until her late twenties. Her close connection with Camp Wapomeo and Camp Ahmek endured for the rest of her life.
Lecko loved her mother, Dorothy, and her sister, Laura, but shared a special connection of the outdoors and love with her father, Fred. She brought an article of his clothing on every one of her summer and winter trips. And there were many: Lecko loved an adventure, no matter the season, and everyone lucky enough to be on one of her trips knew they were in the safest, kindest, and most capable of hands. Throughout her career as a teacher of outdoor education to students from grade school to university - including decades at the Bishop Strachan School in Toronto, where she was Director of Outdoor Education until 2014 - she led canoe trips in the spring, summer, and fall, and dog sledding and hand hauling camping expeditions in the winter. “Ms. Leckie” was a patient, quietly perceptive, and non-judgemental mentor to her students of all ages. She was a respected leader in her field, and opened thousands of hearts and minds to the wonders of forest, lake, ice, snow, and sky.
Cherished partner, guide, outdoor educator extraordinaire, beacon, route finder, cooking fire maker, woodsmoke carrier, storyteller, lover of all seventies music, unconditional friend, tea drinker, scotch sipper, courageous traveller, wise and accomplished teacher, thundering and beautiful spirit, gardener-deer hater, book reader, book lover, swimmer, paddler, wannigan carrier, blue berry picker, bannock maker, bannock eater, snowshoer, hand hauler, dog sledder, tent dweller, blue eyes-keen observer, big ears-good listener, inner magic-quiet talker, bird watcher, salad eater, braid weaver, laugher, lover … Lecko’s qualities will be remembered when we tell her story. She will be missed by her extended family and all of her friends, and by her partner of nearly five decades, Don Standfield.
In the early morning hours one night in the spring of 1977, while walking through camp I heard what sounded like a bear, with the crashing of trays and pots in the Ahmek kitchen. All of a sudden, the screen door came bursting open and there was Lecko in a baseball hat and beautiful braids holding a stolen blueberry pie. She asked how I was doing and carried on into the darkness to her cabin with the pie. We were at each other’s sides for the next 48 years.
Lecko paddled her own canoe. We know she is celebrating this new freedom, and we want so much for her to be shining bright over her thousand plus campsites across the beautiful landscapes of Canada.
A celebration of life, a rendezvous of kindred spirits, will be held in the spring of 2026 in Algonquin Park. Please continue to check this website for information on date and location.
Special thanks and appreciation to Dr. Correia for being a good friend and for taking care of Lecko over the many years. Thank you to Dr. Orkin for being a thoughtful friend to both of us. Thank you to everyone at the Huntsville Hospital for treating Lecko so well.
Donations may be made to The Friends of Algonquin Park, Taylor Statten Camping Bursary Fund, Algonquin Campership Fund, Huntsville Hospital Foundation.