By Waltraud (Wally) Kiel

My beloved Bob, passed into the beyond after a lengthy dementia illness on February 8, 2026. To paraphrase David Suzuki lamenting his father’s imminent death, he said to his scientist son, to think of his molecules floating in the breeze transforming into new life. 

Bob became an active member of Nature Vancouver in 1992. He was a UBC Forestry graduate and first learned about native plant species under a favourite professor at Mesachie Lake field school. Bob, participated in the programs organized by the Botany Section of Nature Vancouver, with many field trips on the Vancouver mainland, to Gulf Islands, and to Mount Baker area. Bob generously offered his liveaboard marina lounge for social gatherings to celebrate birthdays and other events.

Bob was also an active birder and led many annual surveys in False Creek area, pre-high-rise developments. He was also active with a group starting the Marine Biology Section of Nature Vancouver. He took over leading the annual spring trip to Horth Hill Park after Kelly stepped down. He kept copious notes and shared plant and bird lists with members. He led many day trips and camps to Manning Park and Cathedral Lakes. He was an enthusiastic summer camp participant and offered his maintenance skills when needed. During Bill Merrilees’ tenure as president, Bob contributed as a director to ensure we were keeping up with technology. We still had a phone tree meeting reminders and field trips were only accessible via the quarterly Vancouver Naturalist. He compiled an e-mail list to inform members of upcoming events that eventually led to weekly e-News.

Bob was born in Manitoba and grew up in Lac du Bonnet and Winnipeg. He was entrepreneurial from a young age. He had a trap line selling pelts, delivering papers, resetting annual window coverings, and stocked grocery shelves. At age 19, he left home and arrived in Vancouver during Hurricane Freda (1962). With his father’s connections, he worked in Valemount as a log scaler before attending UBC. He had varied work experiences as a ship wright, doing geophysical surveys, summer forestry inventories, various post-grad jobs at Prince George, Ontario, and MacMillan Bloedel. Due to his father needing assistance with his business, he left forestry work to assist with the production of wild rice at ten lakes under lease to the Manitoba government. During other seasons, he got a commercial fishing license to work with an uncle to troll and gillnet in Georgia Straight and West coast. 

Living on the West Coast he learned to sail and bought a ferro-cement hull to build his 44-ft ketch sailboat, and named it Windago (motto: have wind/will go). He built Windago near the entrance to Stanley Park Marina while working as a wharfinger. A saying goes “there’s dreamers, doers, and doners.” He accomplished all three, sailing offshore with his wife and daughter, who was tethered in a Jolly Jumper to the mizzenmast. Radar was too expensive so he learned dead-reckoning to fix the vessel’s position. Down the West Coast to Mexico, and to New Zealand via Polynesia and Rarotonga. He sailed many other regions of the world and captained one of the first tourist sailboats up the BC coast. 

He did several years of retailing wild rice at the Granville Island Market with his company Wildly Canadian Select Foods. After, he started a home repair business in False Creek which became a commercial property repair and renovation business. He lived on the water at the unique marina cooperative East of Granville Island in False Creek. He and his wife raised their daughter and son aboard. After they separated, he remained at the marina and contributed as a maintenance director and designing the entrance signage garden. He had taken training as a licensed gardener. 

He and his partner, Wally, have enjoyed life together later in mid-age. Bob was diagnosed with prostate cancer at an early age and was successfully treated. While recovering, he took the VanDusen Master Gardeners program and after completion toured visitors in an electric cart with his new knowledge. Relocating to Vancouver Island in 2016, what was to be a retirement move, changed into managing long-term cognitive impairment and an advanced dementia. His Vancouver doctor and assistant, and his gerontologist at St. Paul’s hospital have been the experts we relied on. When admitted to residential care, he was cared for by many guardian angels.