Arthur Lorne Brooke

The son of Melville and Phyllis Brooke (nee Atkins), Arthur grew up on the family dairy farm in Pitt Meadows with his sisters, Daphne and Elizabeth. At Maple Ridge High School he was a strong student with a particular interest in science. He went on to study, first agriculture, then chemistry, at UBC where he met his future wife, Sheila Gibson.

During postgraduate studies at SFU, he began working in the expanding field of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), the technology behind MRIs, that became the focus of his professional life. Over the years he designed NMR devices for Nicolet Magnetics, GE, Oxford Magnetics, and Varian, where he finished his career as a senior engineer.

In addition to their early years together in Burnaby, Arthur and Sheila lived and worked in California for many years, with shorter stints in Australia and England. With their sons Nigel and Julian in tow, they returned often to Vancouver and Thunder Bay (Sheila's hometown) to visit family.

In their retirement years Arthur and Sheila returned to their home in Burnaby and took great pleasure in being deeply involved in their grandchildren’s lives. Between babysitting and chauffeuring, they travelled the world. Some of their more exotic trips were to the Galapagos, Africa, Antarctica and Tibet, which included a visit to Mt. Everest base camp.

Arthur had many diverse interests, including space exploration, electric vehicles, music, theatre, and politics. However, everyone who knew him would recognize that Arthur's favourite place to be was his garden; the hobby consumed both most of his free time and most of the backyard wherever he lived, bringing together his agricultural childhood, his chemistry education, and a later passion for plant-based nutrition, which extended beyond his garden to the local farmer's markets. Indeed, one of Sheila's biggest challenges was to schedule their travels to fit with the growing season. After Sheila’s death in 2021, he kept up his gardening, and up to the very end (and in fact past it) he continued his generous habit of growing plants from seed to distribute to other gardeners in the family.

Arthur is survived by his sons Nigel (Patricia) and Julian (Hong), grandchildren Jack, Sam, Katie, and Simon, sister Elizabeth, sisters-in-law Pat and Joan, brother-in-law Ken, and many nieces, nephews and cousins. He was predeceased by his wife Sheila, sister Daphne, niece Rosalie, and brothers-in-law Larry, Tommy and Cliff.

There will be a celebration of his life in mid-August.