Gregory Bonnell

R. (Ronald) Gregory Bonnell: Biologist, musician, friend, hoarder of every piece of paper that entered his life. Born May 24, 1954, in Vancouver. Died January 30, 2026, in Victoria, of complications from Parkinson’s disease, aged 71.

Greg was the second son, and older brother of two sisters, born to (Dr.) Ronald and (Mrs.) Barbara Bonnell. His older brother wasn’t initially happy about his arrival; Greg remembered his mother’s story about how brother Ken “would peel my fingers off the top of the crib railing.” His upper middle-class childhood in Vancouver’s Kerrisdale neighbourhood in the 1960s involved playing Little League baseball at Trafalgar School, swimming at the Arbutus Club, working toward his Queen Scout Award, gymnastics at Prince of Wales school, and loading into the family station wagon for summer holidays in the Okanagan.

Greg hoped to follow his father into medicine, but he soon realized it wasn’t for him. He graduated with a B.Sc. (Zoology) from the University of British Columbia. He had several close pals during high school that carried on through university and after. It must have been a difficult decision to choose his best man but he was honoured to have Harry Gray stand up for him at his 1984 marriage to Bonnie. He reminisced about his bike tour with Norm Haddock (friend) in the 1970s on several Hawaiian Islands, moonlight talks with Chuck Bell (friend) on Mayne Island, and hosting parties for his friends at his family’s Shawnigan property, featuring loud music, waterskiing, and Old Style beer.

He was distinguished by his blond shag, wire-rimmed glasses and a beard he grew when participating in a beard-growing contest, a beard he wore for the rest of his life (except on his wedding day). Even as their lives grew apart with marriages, children, and his move to Victoria in 1993, he still kept his friends in his heart.

For a man who became a connoisseur of fine food, he was a very slow, picky eater as a child. His sister, Judy, wrote: “I remember he hated lima beans. He didn't like many vegetables. We would spend hours waiting for Greg to surgically carve out [any fat or gristle on his meat] and finish his dinner because the Bonnell house rule was that no one left the table until everyone was finished.” Greg remembered when his father angrily left the table in frustration saying, “I can’t stand it anymore.”

Greg was proud of his 30-plus year career with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, retiring as a Senior Habitat Biologist with the Salmon Enhancement Program. A former colleague wrote “One of his last and favourite projects was on the Cowichan River. Greg's mathematical spreadsheets, detailing every aspect of salmon history, were admired by his colleagues and crucial in the design and construction of spawning and side channels. As a field biologist, his expert knowledge and advice extended to major and community enhancement facilities on Vancouver Island.”

Work was important to Greg, but his real passion was music. Starting on the piano as a child, then euphonium, he eventually picked up the trombone. Greg was a gifted player for more than 50 years, and a member of the award-winning Kitsilano Boys Band (originally formed in 1928 by and under the direction of Mr. Arthur W. Delamont). “Mr. D” was an avowed disciplinarian with what someone described as an impish sense of humour, and Greg’s first mentor and man he deeply admired.

As a teenager, Greg played with the band on three chaperoned summer trips throughout the UK, parts of Europe, and Moscow; always on a bus and always billeted. Greg described how, when they pulled up to a bandstand in a small town, the boys would pile off the bus, open their instrument cases and start playing marches, jazz and popular songs. The audience gathered from out of nowhere. He made one last trip overseas in 1979 as a band Alumni, with Mr. D and the old boys, and returned wearing an Irish-knit sweater and smoking a pipe. He played reunions at the Kitsilano Showboat in Vancouver, practised weekly with a number of brass quartets just for the pleasure, and later, with the Don Leppard Big Band in Victoria, occasionally performing at Hermann’s Jazz Club. Greg leaves a wall of music, hundreds of CDs he handpicked over the years, while consulting his Penguin music resource guides.

Greg was a bibliophile and a reader of non-fiction and historical fiction; his favourite writer was Patrick O’Brian. Greg read his 17 sea novels set during the Napoleonic Wars at least twice.

He was also a talented B&W photographer, influenced by the work of Ansel Adams and Freeman Patterson. If it wasn’t his trombone, it was either a book in his hand or a 35mm Pentax in the camera bag slung over his shoulder.

Greg collected 200-plus cookbooks over decades. Greg and his future wife, Bonnie, met while working at Quinsam Hatchery in Campbell River in late 1980.

As a pastime, they browsed through bookstores, and Greg often left with a cookbook under his arm. That was reason enough to marry the man.

Greg was a kind, loving man. Realizing they couldn’t have a family, he turned to Bonnie and said, “We didn’t get married just to have children.” They carried on and filled their lives with terriers, friends, past-times, jobs and trips to western Europe, London, New York, San Francisco, and a 2024 cruise around southern Japan. They enjoyed fine food, art galleries, concerts, museums, and parks. They both agreed their favourite vacation was their 1984 honeymoon trip to a privately-owned resort on Harbour Island in the Bahamas, called by the owner family surname, “Valentine’s”. Pink sand, conk shells and a motley group of new friends from various parts of the world.

They never fought about money. Both were making good incomes but sometimes Bonnie would say, “I’m broke!” In response, Greg would get out his wallet, open it and say, “How much do you need?” There are no arguments to remember. They had attended a class offered by the Anglican church before they were married, feeling they could probably learn something. From then on, when they had a “discussion” about something, they never said “never”, and they never said “always”. Whenever there was a “bang crash” in the kitchen, Bonnie would yell, “Are you alright dear?” not “What did you break now?”

Greg was fortunate to have a second mentor in his life, his godfather, Lt. Col. Ian Macdonald Grant, DSO (Lord Strathcona Horse). He loved and admired Ian, his father’s best friend from childhood in Victoria. Ian taught Greg about the appreciation of fine champagne, single malt scotch whisky and good wine. They would talk for hours about current affairs and politics. Ian influenced Greg’s manner of dress with his adoption of what became Greg’s signature tailored jacket, folded pocket-puff, French-cuff shirts with custom made agate cuff-links. It’s unknown whether Ian approved of the Levi jeans.

He wasn’t perfect. Greg was a terrible procrastinator but when he set out to do something, he wanted to do it right. He was meticulous with any project, paying particular attention to detail. Greg’s method of hanging a painting: He’d go down to the basement and return with a tape measure, pencil, hammer, picture hanger and level. He’d do all his measuring from every which way and Bonnie would assist while he made his final pencil mark to place the nail. It drove her to distraction.

Greg was a hoarder. He saved practically every piece of paper he ever wrote on or received. Full filing cabinets and countless boxes. If you’d like to know anything about UBC biochemistry lectures in the 1970s, contact the family. He retained facts and recalled memories about numerous subjects that family and friends had long forgotten or never knew. People didn’t always appreciate Greg’s advantage of remembering factoids until they were up against him or were on his team while playing bar Trivia. He was a “ringer.” “Everyone should own a sports car at least once in their life.” When Greg was turning 50, Bonnie encouraged him to buy something he really wanted. Initially, he considered a soft-top Karmann Ghia, the same car his godfather drove while living in London in the 1950s. He finally chose a car custom-built in Vancouver; one he’d read about in a magazine 25 years earlier. It is a faithful homage to the Porsche 1959 Roadster 356D. Greg could have driven fast but he preferred leisurely, top-down drives along scenic Vancouver Island side roads, and several organized driving tours off-Island. He owned the car for almost 19 years, until he was unable to drive.

Greg was a charming man, witty, loving, and authentic. When they first met in 1980 while working for Fisheries, Bonnie thought, “This guy is too good to be true.” When they retired together in their mid-50s, Greg would get up in the morning with the dogs and return to bed with tea for them both. Every year he’d carry up a tray of croissants and strawberry jam, tea, and roses from the garden for Bonnie’s birthday. They walked hand in hand for 45 years.

Greg was never bitter or angry over his 2021 Parkinson’s diagnosis, but it robbed him of many things, and then complications ended his life rapidly. The motto around their house was, “Stay on your feet.” He continued to find humour in life, watched food shows and listened to CBC podcasts, while he faithfully kept his schedule of exercise, walking with Nordic poles, and going for drives and coffee at Savoury Café. His personal approach to life was, “Everything always works out.”

He chose to leave us peacefully, the day after receiving the last rites, with his wife and their Cairn terrier, Toby, at his side. Greg is survived by his wife, Bonnie Ellen Campbell, his younger sisters Judy Hart (Ryan) and Joanne Bonnell (Mark), and many nieces and nephews. He was pre-deceased by both of his parents, his godfather, Lt. Col. Ian Macdonald Grant, and his older brother, Kenneth Bonnell (Sandy) in Alberta.

Bonnie and family would like to thank Dr. G. Rideout for his years long compassionate care for Greg, and The Rev. Dr. John C. Macquarrie for taking the call to say the final prayers and ministrations for Greg, and his comforting words and kindness.

Greg’s ashes will be spread at a private gathering at the family’s Shawnigan Lake property. A celebration of his life will be held in the summer. If you wish, you can donate in Greg’s honour to the Parkinson’s Wellness Projects in Victoria.

www.parkinsonwellness.ca

-Bonnie Campbell is Greg’s wife.