Vernon "Jim" James Shepherd

Jim was born on September 25th, 1934 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and moved with his family at a young age to West Vancouver. While growing up in Ambleside and later Fisherman’s Cove, Jim was an avid swimmer and boating enthusiast, often sailing his father’s home built nautical creations on their maiden voyages – but never far from shore!

Jim attended West Vancouver High School and after school began work as a clerk for the CP railroad. In 1957 Jim joined the Burlington Northern Railroad Company. Jim would go on to spend his entire professional career with the railroad, retiring in Vancouver in 1995. Jim rose steadily through the company, moving to Seattle, Toronto, Minneapolis, Detroit (twice), Philadelphia, and Portland before accepting his final position back in Vancouver as Manager of Forest Products for British Columbia.

Jim was an avid hockey fan, and watched his two sons play hockey throughout their youth before turning his interest to his much-loved Vancouver Canucks.

Jim is survived by his devoted wife of 49 years, Ann Lesley, by his sons Michael James (Shelly) and Donald William, and his three grandchildren (Patrick, Veronica and Trevor). Additionally, Jim is survived by his sister Amy Joyce Euler (Vic). His older brothers, Gordon Rimington Shepherd and Donald Shepherd, preceded him in death.

Thank you to all of you for celebrating the life of Jim Shepherd by reading these words of remembrance – Michael Shepherd.

Jim was born on September 25th, 1934 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and moved with his family at a young age to West Vancouver where he grew up in admiration of his brothers’ Gordon and Donald, both of who were paratroopers in World War II, and was the pesky little brother to his sister Joyce. Jim attended West Vancouver High School and with the encouragement of his father, after school and several weeks before his high school graduation, Jim began work as a clerk for the Canadian Pacific Railroad (at least as the story was told to me).

Jim would go on to spend his entire professional career with the railroad and in 1957 Jim joined the Burlington Northern railroad company. Jim rose steadily through the company while moving to Seattle, Toronto, Minneapolis, Detroit (twice), Philadelphia, and Portland before accepting his final position back in Vancouver as Manager of Forest Products for British Columbia and finally retiring in 1995.

Along the way Jim met the beautiful Ann Lesley and the two were married in 1965 in Vancouver. Their marriage was followed shortly by the move to Seattle, and they started a family with me (Michael) in Toronto and with Donald making his debut later in Minneapolis.

When Jim was young he was imaginative and quite a dreamer, while his sister Joyce might have used the word mischievous! He told me that as a young boy he sent away for a Piper Cub flight manual and upon delivery he promptly put a wooden crate in a tree for a cockpit and installed the sawed off top of a broom stick as a control stick so that he could practice flying. Later he would sail about Vancouver in a small sailboat dreaming up adventures at sea.

Once Jim started a family, most of these ambitions were put on hold. But that didn’t stop him from dreaming just a little. When I was about three or four, my dad took me to visit the docks in Michigan and Minnesota, and I learned how to tell the difference between Evinrude and Mercury outboard boat motors. My parents had a small rental property on Lake Minnetonka in Minnesota and after working on the lawn or painting the cottage, we would go to the local marinas to see if any Chris Craft boats were for sale. By the time I was in my teens and living in Pennsylvania I would grow to dread the inevitable stop at the marine dealerships along the tributaries of the Delaware River, knowing a night of haggling over a Ventnor power boat was not going to result in a sale! He also introduced me to model airplanes and airshows with the same zest and zeal. Despite all the time we spent around airfields he never actually consummated a deal to fly, let alone own, an airplane.

What I grew to realize and understand was that Jim always put savings and the mortgage first – his foremost ambition was always to provide for his family and not squander away our future! I was always thankful for that and in some small way I was able to pay the favor back when I was older and in the Air Force. My father would spend countless hours on the phone with me wanting to hear the details of any airplane I flew or the sites I saw at any country I visited. He really delighted in hearing about my life. Finally, on Dad’s 70th birthday, I was able to take him to the local airport for a belated flight sortie in a bright yellow 1930’s era Piper Cub – he was grinning from ear to ear!

Besides doting on his family, Jim’s other great passion was his work. He threw himself into, and truly enjoyed, his work. He was continually recognized as a top-performing salesman at Burlington Northern. Jim was a salesman at a time when the railways were regulated, so the only thing that differentiated the railways to the customer was the salesman himself, and Jim was marvelous at entertaining his clients and getting the sale.

Jim’s success became very evident to me when he was working in Minneapolis and took on a challenge to sign up new members for the local Chamber of Commerce. Dad easily bested all the other competitors by gathering the most new clients and won prizes for his achievement. Not just any prizes, but winnings beyond comprehension to our family. It was the mid 1970’s and Jim’s Chamber of Commerce bounty was a microwave, a color television with UHF channels, and an electric carving knife. For you younger readers, this would be like bringing home a Keurig Espresso machine, 60” 4K 3D television and, well, an electric carving knife. Dad was our hero!

Jim was an avid hockey fan, and enjoyed watching his two sons play hockey throughout their youth before turning his interest to his much-loved Vancouver Canucks. A story that exemplifies Jim’s love of family, love of hockey, and his determination and power of persuasion was from when he was working in Michigan and at a hotel in Detroit where there was a conference in advance of the Detroit Auto Show. The conference was open to the local car dealers and Bobby Orr was there to sign autographs. When Jim heard that the legendary Bobby Orr was in the building he went down into the lobby to try and meet him. Dad knew that I, like so many others, revered Bobby Orr. So much so that I wanted to wear his number four on my youth hockey team jersey (with #4 taken I wore #14 instead and Jim’s grandchildren wear #14 on their baseball uniforms today). The event was a closed event and Jim didn’t have a ticket and he wasn’t a car dealer so he couldn’t get in! Walking dejectedly back to his room, Jim struck up a conversation with some of the gentlemen who were wearing event badges. After a few minutes of chatting with one of the dealers Jim walked away with a full set of credentials to enter the show! Newly armed with his pass, Jim strolled into the gala event and walked up to my childhood hero Bobby Orr and asked him to autograph a photo to me and one for Donald (Note from Donald: I wore #14 to be like my big brother Mike; regardless, still a big Bobby Orr fan). My brother and I still have these autographed photos, and it sure was nice to have Mr. Orr wishing me luck at the Air Force Academy and my brother luck with the Lahser High School varsity hockey team!

Jim passed away on June 29th, 2014 and was fortunate to have my mother and brother at his side. For me, this is how I’ll remember my father – always with a twinkle in his eye towards an adventure, devoted to his family’s welfare and a likeable, hard-working salesman who came through when it counted. We will all miss him dearly!

Jim’s niece Kate wrote this beautiful speech for his memorial.

For those of you who I don’t know, my name is Kate and I am a niece on the Bell side of Uncle Jim and Aunty Ann.

When I was asked to speak today on behalf of the nieces and nephews in our family, I couldn’t have felt more honored. To remember my Uncle Jim and share with you what an incredible man he was to all of us is a privilege and something I am incredibly proud to do – so thank you Aunty Ann for giving me this opportunity.

I have lived my entire life surrounded by some very special aunts and uncles, and my Aunty Ann and Uncle Jim have always been two of the most unique in my life. Proximity wise, we were together for most birthdays, Christmases, family bbqs, Easters, and any other special occasion that would warrant an 8-10 person meal and dessert. No matter the occasion Uncle Jim would greet all of us with the warmest hug, a kiss on the cheek, and usually some words of praise… even in my most awkward stages of life, I remember Uncle Jim telling me I looked beautiful and always took a genuine interest in what was going on in my life.

These family gatherings meant so much to all of us, but I think that Christmas Eve was a true favorite for all of us kids as this was the one time of year that the Bell side of the family would really be able to see and spend time with the Shepherd side of the family.

The kids group on the night before Christmas started small with my five-year-old-self, my sister Charlotte, who was seven, and Jenny and April (who are the great nieces of Uncle Jim and only a few years older than me at time) , but this group soon began to grow and grow and grow on both sides until we had Lee, Ashley, Harmony, Destiny, Jasmine, Cassie, Bianca, Miranda, and now THEIR babies in the mix... but this night was always a time where even though we saw one another only once a year, it always just felt like home.

A big tradition during this Christmas Eve gathering was for the kids to put on a show- and this is something that Uncle Jim definitely took no shame in pressuring us to do. As we marched up the stairs of their beautiful home with the slightest annoyance, we always came down with a real show stopping song, dance, or both! I can literally see the smile on my Uncle Jim's face as he got to watch this all unfold year after year. Seeing both sides of his family come together must have felt like true happiness for him – which is something I only really considered as I reflected back on this night.

There was really just something so comforting and exciting about arriving at the Shepherd house on a winter night and being greeted by my Uncle Jim – a man whose gentle and kind nature immediately allowed all of us to feel safe and loved in his presence. Our Christmas Eve tradition is something that I consider to be one of the highlights of my upbringing.

In fact, Christmas was SO important to our family, that the one year that Uncle Jim and Aunty Ann decided to go see Mike, Shelly and the kids in California for the winter instead of hosting us, we just literally didn’t know what to do with ourselves and ended up at a White Spot counter in Langley eating turkey dinner... or maybe burgers, I think I blocked it out. In any case, it’s safe to say that both my Aunt and Uncle were extremely important people in all of our lives.

Another memory I have of my Uncle Jim is a trip that he and Aunty Ann took Charlotte, my two cousins, Alice and Kathryn, and myself from England over to Victoria for the weekend.

I know we did a lot of roaming around, and when I think back, it makes me smile to consider how different this trip must have been for Uncle Jim…. He was likely used to travelling with two boys, probably watching some kind of sports game, and probably not enduring quite the level of “chat” that I know would have been in full swing with Alice, Kathryn and Char around! But you would never have known if he was out of his comfort zone or not – he was always just extremely easy to be around, and that is one thing I will really miss about him.

Beyond that, the thing I have been thinking about in the last while, and what I will remember most, is my Uncle Jim’s incredible sense of humour – he always made me laugh – and was even cracking jokes and smiling the last time I saw him at the care home in White Rock. He was a man that was clearly an amazing father for Mike and Don, the most loving husband to my Aunty Ann, a dear friend of my Mom and David and an Uncle that will be missed dearly by all of us.

* * * * * * * * * *

SHEPHERD, Vernon James “Jim”

Jim Shepherd passed away June 29th, 2014, with his family by his side at The Residence at Morgan Heights after an extended battle with Parkinson’s disease. He was 79.

Jim was born on September 25th, 1934 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and moved with his family at a young age to West Vancouver. While growing up in Ambleside and later Fisherman’s Cove, Jim was an avid swimmer and boating enthusiast, often sailing his father’s home built nautical creations on their maiden voyages – but never far from shore!

Jim attended West Vancouver High School and after school began work as a clerk for the CP railroad. In 1957 Jim joined the Burlington Northern Railroad Company. Jim would go on to spend his entire professional career with the railroad, retiring in Vancouver in 1995. Jim rose steadily through the company, moving to Seattle, Toronto, Minneapolis, Detroit (twice), Philadelphia, and Portland before accepting his final position back in Vancouver as Manager of Forest Products for British Columbia.

Jim was an avid hockey fan, and watched his two sons play hockey throughout their youth before turning his interest to his much-loved Vancouver Canucks.

Jim is survived by his devoted wife of 49 years, Ann Lesley; sons Michael James (Shelly) and Donald William, sister Amy Joyce Euler (Vic), and three grandchildren (Patrick, Veronica and Trevor). His older brothers, Gordon Rimington Shepherd and Donald Shepherd, preceded him in death.

A memorial service will be held Friday, July 25th at 1:00pm at the Victory Memorial Park Chapel. In lieu of flowers donations may be made in Jim’s memory to the Parkinson’s Society of British Columbia (www.parkinsons.bc.ca).

Arrangements under the direction of Victory Memorial Park Funeral Centre, Surrey, BC.