Bob died in North Vancouver on August 4 at the venerable age of 103. Predeceased by his sister Winifred Burrows (2006), and his wife, from whom he was separated but always remained friends, Elizabeth Anne (2012).
Born in Calgary and raised in Vancouver, Bob graduated from Lord Byng High School in 1939 as the Depression years gave way to World War II. He served with the RCAF in Southeast Asia as Captain of a Liberator aircraft and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for duties including dropping supplies and guerrilla resistance fighters behind enemy lines in what was then occupied Burma and Ceylon.
Bob graduated from UBC in 1949 with a Bachelor of Science and joined Canada’s Foreign Trade Service in 1951, where he went on to serve as a Trade Commissioner in Switzerland, Greece, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Washington, D.C. He concluded his public service in Canada as Superintendent of Economic Development for the Department of Indian Affairs.
Bob spent much of his life on the move, keen to see what lay over the next hill and across the ocean. He leaves behind his beloved children, Robert Andrew (Caro), Donald Bruce (Sheri), and Kathryn Ann; and grandchildren, Sonya, Sheralin, and Ted.
He will be missed.
“I’ll be looking at the moon
But I’ll be seeing you.”