Peter Erskine Ross

Peter Erskine Ross passed away on July 24, 2021 at his residence in West Vancouver after a short illness. He was a longtime resident of Bowen Island having built a home in Tunstall Bay in the early 1980s. He was very active in the development of the Tunstall Bay Club Association, serving as its Treasurer for many years. He enjoyed playing tennis and the company of the many close friends he and his wife Marja-Liisa came to know over the years on Bowen. He also loved walking their dogs on the beaches at Tunstall Bay.

Peter was born in La Tuque, Quebec in 1927 and was raised in Westmount (Montreal). He graduated from Sir George Williams University with a degree in Business and married Jacqueline Patricia Harton in Montreal in 1952. He worked as an executive with Bell Canada in Montreal and AT&T in Manhattan. During this time, they had three children, David, Stephen and Heather. They divorced in the late 1960s and in the early 1970s he moved to Vancouver to start his own firm, Ross Systems, Ltd. He married Marja-Liisa Toth in 1982. He was active in managing Ross Systems into his late eighties and very much enjoyed advising and assisting his many clients in Vancouver, Bowen Island and elsewhere. He and Marja-Liisa moved to West Vancouver in 2017 but always held Bowen Island and their many friends close to their hearts.

He was a lifelong lover of the opera, an affinity for which he developed at age seventeen. He also loved spending summers at the family home at Cacouna on the shores of the Lower St Lawrence River. There, his days were often filled with rounds of golf, games of tennis or flyfishing for trout in the backcountry and ended with lengthy family dinners and the occasional late-night game of poker with brother Graeme and assorted children and grandchildren. Most importantly, they were always filled with family, laughter and love.

He is survived by Marja-Liisa, his brother Donald Ross, his three children David, Stephen and Heather Ross and their spouses, ten grandchildren and four great grandchildren. He was intelligent, steadfast, a proud father and a true gentleman. He will be deeply missed by those who loved him. He will be interred at the family plot in Riviere Du Loup, Quebec. A memorial service is being planned for mid-September at Amica Lionsgate in West Vancouver with further details to come. Arrangements under the direction of Hollyburn Funeral Home West Vancouver.

Fond memories, photos, and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.hollyburnfunerals.com for the Ross family.