In Memoriam: Mary Kennedy (@mkkennedy)

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I was informed yesterday that Mary Kennedy, an enthusiastic naturalist and tireless promoter of iNaturalist in Nova Scotia, passed away on July 30, 2025, at the age of 69.

Mary was an aquatic biologist and data manager during her career at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography, and after retirement she remained active in the OBIS/GBIF community, offering help and training in data management and sharing.

Her passion for biodiversity and citizen science reached far beyond her 48,488 observations on iNaturalist. She was a driving force behind local events like the Halifax Regional Municipality City Nature Challenge, helping to inspire many people to get outside and make observations. I’m grateful for the ways her efforts made it easier for the rest of us to connect with nature.

You can read her obituary here: https://www.dartmouthfuneralhome.ca/obituary/mary-kennedy

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Thank you for sharing her story

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I answered a lot of Mary’s questions via iNat Support over the years. Her enthusiasam and passion for nature and iNat were always inspiring.

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Wow, while using inat, she made over 48,000 observations and 3,000 species - that’s incredible!

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In addition to iNaturalist, Mary was certainly a very keen contributor to the Ocean Biogeographical information System (OBIS). Just now looking at OBIS, I see 126 of 252 datasets with Mary’s name as the contact. A whirling dervish to say the least, almost impossible to keep up.

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