Barbara Burnside of Springs, who was instrumental in last year’s “Hands Off” and “No Kings” rallies at East Hampton Town Hall, and who as a member of ChangeHampton tended the pollinator garden there with quiet dedication, died on Jan. 6 at the Kanas Center for Hospice Care in Quiogue. The cause was cancer. Ms. Burnside was 79.
“In the short time that she lived in our community she worked hard to find her people and the causes she believed in,” Ms. Burnside’s family wrote, noting that in 2023 she drove “Evie,” her electric vehicle, from British Columbia to Springs to join her partner, Paul Gartside. She also found a creative community among the knitters of Sag Harbor.
Ms. Burnside “was a quiet, pleasant woman who always was available to answer my millions of questions on which plant was which, and was very generous with her community service to the town,” Councilwoman Cate Rogers said at the town board’s work session on Tuesday. “To my surprise, Barbara came into my office at one point and spoke of what was happening on a national level . . . and this very quiet person who tended so carefully to plants asked to organize pro-democracy rallies, No Kings rallies at the Town Hall. . . . She brought thousands of people together in our community to support our democracy. She became a leader in that movement. It was not a lifelong activism, but she saw what she saw, and she felt the need to speak up.”
She was born in Wahroonga, in New South Wales, Australia, in November 1946 to Walter Ronald Burnside and the former Margaret Lorenz. In 1951, the family moved to her mother’s home state of California, traveling from Sydney to San Francisco by ship. She spent her childhood in Costa Mesa and Aptos, and graduated from Watsonville High School. She attended Cabrillo College in Aptos, and Boston College.
In 1966, she and Eric Schandall of East Hampton, Conn., were married in Aptos. With their first child, they moved to the fishing village of Charlos Cove in Nova Scotia. Following the birth of two sons there and a brief return to California, the family settled in Victoria, British Columbia, in 1974. While raising her three children, Ms. Burnside earned a Ph.D. in neuropsychology at the University of Victoria.
She and Mr. Gartside, who survives, were married in 1989. The marriage ended in divorce, but they later reunited. She worked as a psychologist and psychotherapist in Victoria until her retirement in 2019.
Ms. Burnside was engaged with creative projects and people everywhere she lived, her family wrote, whether drawing, painting, dancing, singing, sewing, gardening, birding, hiking, or boating. Her work as a psychologist and her life in retirement were influenced by a powerful sense of social justice, compassion, and ethical care for others.
Along with Mr. Gartside, she is survived by her three children, Rami Schandall and her husband, Geoffrey, of Toronto, Torbjorn Schandall and his wife, Jenny, of Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y., and Peder Schandall and his wife, Jihye, of Seoul, South Korea. Two grandchildren also survive, Brynn Schandall-O’Donoghue of Toronto and Milan Schandall of Hastings-on-Hudson. Her siblings Sue, Scott, and Cory also survive, as do seven nieces and nephews, and friends and family around the world. A sister, Heather, died before her.
Ms. Burnside’s family would like to thank Dr. Margarita Yarovikova and her team at the Phillips Family Cancer Center in Southampton, “who for four months have been as close as family,” and the staff of the Kanas Center for Hospice Care. “Theirs is the noblest work,” they wrote. “Thanks most of all to Paul Gartside for his steadfast, loving, and generous care for Barbara throughout her illness, this most challenging journey in an adventure-filled life together.”
A celebration of Ms. Burnside’s life will be held on Saturday at 1 p.m. at Hoie Hall at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in East Hampton Village. Her family has encouraged the sharing of spoken or written memories. A potluck gathering will follow, and those attending have been invited to provide sweet or savory offerings.
