Rose Blackmore worked as a social worker with the Ontario Department of Public Welfare and as a field instructor for social work students from the Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto. After ten years in this dual role, she was named assistant director of Staff Training and Development and became aware of the new school of social work being established at Waterloo Lutheran University with an emphasis on field practica for the students. Hired to head a practicum unit of students, she joined Waterloo Lutheran University in 1970 and retired from Wilfrid Laurier University in 1993.