“SPRING, ROBERT HARRY, born in Vancouver on 29 September 1935, and died on 30 June 2021. Bob lived in the Dunbar and Kerrisdale suburbs of the city until 2001 when he and Janice moved to “the farm”, their retirement home in Maple Ridge.
Predeceased by the love of his life, and remembered every day, his spouse, Janice (nee Gibson), in 2005. Survived by his loving children, Steven, (Susan), Bruce, and Janene, (Pierre). Also survived by his four wonderful grandchildren, Gordon, Sarah, Greg and Allison.
Bob was very proud of his accomplishments during his life, starting with qualifying as the first King’s Scout to reach that level in the 52nd St. John’s (Shaughnessy) Scout Troop in Vancouver, in his teens. The day he enrolled in his first year of post secondary studies at U.B.C. he enlisted in the Canadian Officers’ Training Corps, (C.O.T.C.). Later in his years in the Army Reserve he attained the rank of Captain and was the Adjutant on retirement from the 15th Field Artillery Regiment, R.C.A. in Vancouver. Following retirement from his professional career, he became a volunteer, and in later years, a Trustee of the 15th Field Artillery Regiment RCA Museum & Archives Society. Bob developed a fascination for reading and learning as much as he could about the participation of Canadian Armed Forces in 1943 in the Joint U.S/ Canadian operation to take back the island of Kiska in the Aleutian Islands, occupied by the Japanese Imperial Army in 1942. His interest and research over a number of years focused in particular on the history and training of the 24th Field Artillery Regiment RCA, the regiment in which his father, Harry, served as an officer on Kiska.
During the youth and teen years of his children, of whom he was extremely proud, Bob was active in The Dunbar Soccer Association, and held the position of Referee - In – Chief for seven years.
Professionally, he practiced law, first in partnership with his father (who taught him well to treat all clients with great respect and to never over charge), and then with others with whom they merged in practice, primarily in the fields of insurance, and corporate and commercial law for 30 years. He was also a member of the Bar of Yukon for a number of years and served as a member of the Discipline Committee of The Law Society of Yukon. Shortly after retiring from private practice in 1991 he joined the Corporate Law Department at the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia, where he was a solicitor for 9 years until the then mandatory age for retirement. For a portion of that period, he became the first person appointed to the position of Deputy General Counsel of the Corporation. In 2011, Bob was honoured at a reception along with other honourees, by the Law Society of British Columbia as a member of 50 years standing in the society.
Bob maintained a membership in the Medical Legal Society of British Columbia throughout the 1960’s and into the mid 1970’s when the society became inactive. He was one of four or five physicians and lawyers who in 1980 succeeded in resurrecting interest in that society and he became the Secretary of it. He served the society in that position 18 years, before he asked to be relieved of those duties. During that period, he was one of the two individuals who founded a national (unincorporated) body of Medical Legal Societies, known as “The Canadian Association of Medical Legal Societies”, and was its Secretary for 10 years. On retiring from the executive of the Medical Legal Society of B.C., Bob was delighted to be made an Honourary Life Member of the society and of its Executive, and kept up his interest in it for the rest of his life.
For 7 years he was an appointed member of the Board of Variance for Bowen Island, and prior to that served a number of years on the Executive of the Bowen Island Improvement Association.
He was an alumnus of the Alpha Omega Chapter, Phi Kappa Sigma Fraternity.
A long-time goal (or probably obsession) for Bob following his professional retirement was to ensure in his lifetime he would be able to look at a plaque containing the correct information beside a Japanese naval gun his father’s artillery regiment brought back with it from Kiska to the Vernon, B.C. army camp in early 1944. The gun had years after the end of the Second World War been designated a memorial by the Vernon B.C. Canadian Army Cadet Corps to the four Canadian soldiers who died on Kiska. He spent a number of years trying to get military authorities and others interested in replacing a plaque beside the gun which he noted contained some incorrect and incomplete historical information as to the principal Canadian military units that participated in the military operation in August of 1943.
That goal was accomplished finally, in early August 2014 with the unveiling of a new historical information plaque, with the necessary corrections, and maintaining the credit given to the Vernon Canadian Army Cadet Corps memorial donation.
Bob’s credo in life was to live it with love, compassion, honesty, humility and humour, but most of all, “fully.” This became evident as Bob made many life-long friends in every facet of his life.
Flowers gratefully declined. Please make donations to the M.S. Society of Canada (B.C. Division), or St. Michael’s Hospice Burnaby.
A Service and Reception to celebrate Bob’s life will be held at a later date.