Mr. Robert Alfred White

Robert White, or Bob as we all knew him, leaves behind a legacy which will gratefully be continued by his wife, children, and grandchildren. Those of us, who remember him and mourn his loss, think of his success story, his zest for life, and the love he imparted to us all.

Interestingly, Bob’s life was as much a product of chance, or luck, than it was of destiny. Robert Alfred White, son of Alfred White (a cabinet-maker) and Ida Cripps, was born June 27th, 1925 in St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver BC; however, Bob’s existence may not have come to pass if two extraordinary instances had never happened. Before Bob was born his parents had already had two children, Henry and Kathleen. The family had booked passage aboard the Titanic in hopes of moving to Canada, yet by a stroke of fate, they cancelled their voyage because 1 year old Kathleen had become sick. Later, the White family successfully planted themselves in Burnaby. Bob’s life came at the expense of his sister Kathleen’s. Kathleen suffered as a child with diabetes. Insulin, having just been discovered, was flown in from the east, yet without the knowledge of how to monitor the medicine, Kathleen died at the age of twelve. Ida was so overcome with sadness her doctor said the only thing to do was to have another child. Ida did have another child, Bob joined the family with his mother, father and brother, who at his birth, was twenty one years his senior.

Bob lived with his mother and father in the family house located on Parker St. in Burnaby. Bob attended Kitchener St. Elementary School, and the original Burnaby North Secondary School. When Bob graduated from Burnaby North, he decided to pursue a degree in Civil Engineering at the University of British Columbia, which would ultimately take him seven years to complete. During this time Bob saved as much as he could. It was at this time that Bob’s landlady would cheat him out of his room and board by giving him only mustard sandwiches to eat.

It was also during this time at UBC that Bob met his future wife, Kitty Brezden. The two met in 1949 while Bob was dating Kitty’s best friend Jean Murray. Bob went away after school that summer to work in a logging camp, and when he returned, he simply could not resist the charms of nurse Kitty Brezden. Kitty was working at the time as a nurse in St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver. Bob would meet Kitty after work, late at night, and take her to Scott’s Café on Granville Street, and being the gentlemen he was, he let Kitty pay. Bob and Kitty dated for a year and were happily married in Chilliwack on May 12th 1950; it was a union which would last almost fifty-six years.

The couple celebrated their marriage with a honeymoon camping trip in California. The newlyweds’ first home was Kitty’s parent’s basement; here Bob saved up what money he could, and Kitty funded his last year at UBC. Bob graduated from UBC in 1951 with a degree in Civil Engineering.

The first job Bob landed outside of school was for Bectel, working on the pipeline stretching from Jasper to Vancouver. Later, Bob got a job with Bohna which required him to travel frequently. It was during these first two periods that three of Bob and Kitty’s four children were born. Kathy, the eldest child, was born in 1952, the eldest son Steve in 1953, and the middle son Mike in 1957. While working for Bohna, Bob and his young family were transferred to Montreal. It was in Montreal in 1960, that the fourth child, Paul was born.

The family lived in Montreal from 1959 to 1961 and then returned to Vancouver, where Bob joined IPEC, (a subsidiary of BC Hydro), where he worked as a Civil Engineer writing contract specifications for hydroelectric projects. Bob excelled at his work, and here he made his name and worked his way up to become the head of his department.

The White family lived on Sunset Blvd. in North Vancouver- a house in which Bob and Kitty would live for almost fifty years.

Bob was a devoted father and a loving husband. As a young married couple, Bob and Kitty were very social; they belonged to bridge, badminton and tennis clubs. The couple frequented and hosted many parties with their friends, including a “hard times” party, complete with farmer’s outfits and haystacks, and a party in which husbands dressed as wives and wives dressed as husbands. Bob was a real handyman, a true fixer- upper, if Kitty needed anything fixed, Bob was the man to do it; be it cars or appliances, there was never any need for a replacement or a repair man.

Bob was generous to a fault with his children, he never could say no, whether the children needed a big favour when they were grown, or simply a jug of A&W root beer from the drive-thru as children. He immersed himself in all the kids’ activities and he was always proud of their accomplishments. Bob coached his sons’ baseball teams, he attended all of Mike’s hockey games, (he attended even until Mike’s teams were named the over 40s instead of the under 12s). Bob got up at five in the morning for two years just to drive Kathy to her daily swimming practices. Bob loved taking Kitty and the children on family vacations; every summer the family would go camping to the Okanagan or Manning Park. For many years Bob had a boat and loved to take his kids for boat rides and waterskiing. In 1964 Bob even crammed his nuclear family of six and Kitty’s parents into one tent for a camping trip to Disneyland.

Bob’s children always knew that if they needed help their dad would be there. Bob was the guy to go to for advice or cheering up; he was always ready with a corny joke. Bob’s humour was the means in which he connected to people; everyone who had the privilege to know him loved him because of the humour with which he saw the world.

Bob’s generosity and his humour did not only extend to his wife and children, but it expanded tenfold to his grandchildren. Bob was always proud of his children and he guided them through all the significant events in their lives. Bob was overjoyed to see the marriages of his daughter Kathy and his son Steve, but he was even more delighted to see the birth of his four grandchildren, Nathan, Toby and Emily, children of his daughter Kathy, and Sherilynn, daughter to his son Steve.

Bob was the most indulgent grandpa you could find; he came to all his grandchildren’s soccer games, baseball games, concerts, swim meets, dance recitals, and graduations, often bringing with him fistfuls of candy or chocolate bars, not only for them but for their closest friends too. Bob and Kitty were on-call babysitters, who jumped at the chance to take their grandkids on an outing, one of the favourites being a lunch at the White Spot on Lougheed Highway followed by a trip to the old Chuck E Cheeses. Every Christmas Bob would dress up in his old Santa Claus suit to surprise the grandkids. He would often use an excuse like needing to pick up some more potatoes to excuse himself from the room; Bob would then go outside to his car and change into his Santa suit and return carrying a sheet over his back filled with presents. Bob would even bring his suit to the grandchildren’s schools to entertain them and their friends. Bob repeated this ritual until his oldest grandchild, Nathan, was twenty- five years young, and his youngest grandchild, Sherilynn, an unsuspecting ten years of age. Bob loved to watch his grandchildren grow and succeed, they did not have to do anything special to earn his praise, and if you did have good news for him, big or small, he was always bursting with pride.

Bob and Kitty celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in 2000. Bob continued to work into his senior years. Although Bob was laid off from Hydro in 1985, he refused to leave, and he came back as a consultant and worked until he was 79 years old.

Throughout his later years Bob struggled with diabetes and a bad heart. Sadly, his struggle came to an end in the Palliative Care unit of Lions Gate Hospital in North Vancouver, surrounded by his family and friends, on February 23rd 2006.

For those of us left behind, however, Bob’s death is not an adequate means of remembering him; we choose to remember his life. We remember Bob as a loving provider; he was a workaholic to the bone with a gentle soul. Bob was knowledgeable, and worldly; he traveled to Europe, Australia, the United States and Mexico.

Bob worked; he traveled, he gave, he loved and he was loved. Bob was in some respects a stubborn man, who would never pay for parking, and would never concede to buy a computer or cell phone, but above all, Bob was a man who knew that the greatest thing he ever accomplished was that he got himself a damn good family whom he loved dearly and who loved him dearly in return.

We who remember Bob choose to remember his legacy, the legacy of a life well lived and a man well loved.