 I
was born in Nanaimo on June 11, 1949, the first
of two sons. My mother and I took the Maquinna
from Victoria to Port Renfrew
to rejoin my father who worked as bookkeeper for
BC Forest Products. My brother was born in 1951.
Shortly after, my mother became seriously ill
and was hospitalized in Victoria until she died
in 1954. Beach Camp at Port Renfrew was a great,
wet place for two young boys, because every home
was open to us.
The first road to Port
Renfrew from Sooke and River Jordan went through
in the Fall of 1956, by my memory. We bought an
old car and drove out in 1957 so my father could
work at Crofton pulp mill. We lived in
Ladysmith. I graduated with a Bachelor of Arts
in History at University of British Columbia in
1973, taking 3 extra years to travel to South
America and Japan, and canoe about 4,000 km.
Until 1981 I worked in Ontario with the federal
government, and got a Master of Business
Administration from Harvard in 1979. Since then,
we have lived in B.C., mainly in Metchosin. I
worked with the provincial government in
environment and parks programs, and then the
Great Bear Rainforest. Since 2006, I‘ve assisted
the Nanwakolas First Nations with implementation
of the Great Bear Rainforest‘ agreements.
Sharleen Thompson married
me in 1977, and hasn‘t given up yet. We have
three children: Gilgamesh (25) in Prince George,
Gwendolen (23) in Vancouver, and Struan (19) who
is travelling in Asia. I retired from the
provincial government in 2008, but work as a
deacon 5 or more days a week.
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