Sam was born in a displaced persons’ camp in Munich on 10 October 1946, the second day of Sucot; he passed away suddenly and unexpectedly in Vancouver B.C. on November 6, 2021.
Sam emigrated to Canada with his parents, Frieda (née Koloditsky) and Abraham Gerszonowicz in 1951 as soon as they had transit papers, and grew up in Montreal, later making the rest of Canada his home. He attended university in Ottawa and Edmonton, worked summers underground in copper-lead-zinc mines in the Yukon, served as a waiter on the Rupert Rocket in BC and the CP line from Winnipeg to Vancouver, and for several years in the 1970s settled in Edmonton where he co-founded the NewWest ReView and NewWest Press, and took up photography. This led to a brief stint as an archaeological surveyor and photographer in the Sudan, which in turn led to enduring friendships with archaeologists and their fellow-travellers.
Growing up the son of holocaust survivors, Sam had an acute sense of how dangerous the world can be but met life with an open heart and a resilient optimism. He was insatiably curious, finding, creating, and embracing widely diverse projects and business opportunities in Canada and the U.S. He ran several small manufacturing and retail businesses – including a mop-production factory that employed ex-offenders and an electrostatic power painting facility in London, Ontario – and later worked for a decade in investment banking and as a bio-tech analyst in St. Louis and New York.
With the 2008 downturn and a move to Seattle, Sam shifted gears again; he trained in alternative dispute resolution at the University of Washington and built a practice mediating foreclosures, business conflicts and small claims disputes. He embraced a “multi-partial” approach to mediation, convinced that this, rather than a stance of dispassionate neutrality, was the best way to ensure that all parties were heard and could together find a way forward. With mediation Sam found his calling; his practice was growing on both sides of the border and during the Covid pandemic he creatively engaged the challenges of socially-distanced mediation. He had a passion for making things right where he could.
The many friends and acquaintances Sam drew into his orbit describe him as intensely alive, a sharp wit and vivid storyteller, possessed of a mischievous sense of humour and an infectious enthusiasm for everyday pleasures. He was a steadfast friend, for some a safe harbour, and for many a valued source of wise counsel that was always delivered with warmth and generosity. As one put it, he has left the world better for having been in it.
Sam will be sorely missed by his life-long partner Alison Wylie and her extended family; his sister and brother-in-law, Fay and Rafi Zeira, and nieces Galit Victor and Miriam Zeira; his New York cousins Genee Jacobs and Andrea Nusenbaum and their families, as well as by friends and colleagues far and near.
A celebration of life will planned for the summer and a mediation memorial fund will be set up in Sam’s name.
Updates will be posted at this site.