1974

Above: Asian Centre, UBC
[Image: www.students.ubc.ca/]

*****************************************
You’ll note that these years include events listed under “Also in . . .” These are events for which we don’t have a specific date. If YOU know the specific date of an event shown there, please notify us . . . and cite the source! Many thanks!
*****************************************

January 8 Construction began on the Asian Centre at UBC. It would not officially open until June 5, 1981.

The Centre has an unusual history: a UBC Religious Studies Professor, Shotaro Iida, who had gone to Expo 70 in Osaka, Japan thought the Sanyo Electric Company’s pavilion would make a great Asian Centre for UBC once the fair was over. He asked Sanyo for the donation of the building, and succeeded! The building was donated to the people of the province of British Columbia in honor of B.C.’s Centennial. In addition to the Sanyo Corporation, sponsors for the Asian Centre included the Canadian and Japanese governments, business, industry and private individuals, many from Japan.

Since the cost of shipping the entire dismantled building would have been astronomical, only the supporting beams and girders were sent. UBC, however, did not know about the shipment and only learned of it when Canada Customs called saying they had some “white pipes” waiting to be picked up! The dismantled pieces were numbered to make reconstruction easy and efficient. Unfortunately, the beams were left on the site for a few years while UBC recruited sponsors for the construction, and when construction finally started, it was learned that rain had washed the numbers off! Putting the beams together was rather like trying to solve a 172-ton jigsaw puzzle.

The Centre’s distinctive roof shape is inspired by a traditional Japanese farmhouse. When we get 1981 up on the site we’ll tell you more!

January 15 The Knight Street Bridge opened. It replaced the Fraser Street Bridge, 1.6 km to the west, which would close February 10. Knight Street became a more distinct dividing point between the western Sunset and eastern Victoria/Fraserview districts after the building of the bridge in 1974. This is now one of the busiest stretches of road in the city, with hundreds of trucks using it daily.

This four-lane concrete bridge, wrote engineer Robert Harrison, gave medium-level access above Marine Drive to Lulu Island and both branches of the North Arm of the Fraser at Mitchell Island. There are six lanes as far south as Mitchell Island, where the deck narrows to four lanes. With the completion of the east-west Westminster Highway across Lulu Island, Knight Street Bridge serves Routes 91 and 99 to the south.

Innovations included the extensive use of semi-lightweight concrete, and electric heating cables in the deck to minimize the use of de-icing salt in the winter. Construction took 5 years. The cost, including approaches, was about $15 million.

January 22 Granville Street north of Nelson closed to automobile traffic for conversion to a pedestrian mall. It would open August 22.

February 3 M.Y. Williams, professor of geology, died in Vancouver, aged 90. Merton Yarwood Williams was born near Bloomfield, Ontario June 21, 1883. “With his passing,” UBC says, “the university lost one of its original faculty members and the geology profession lost a pioneer in stratigraphic and petroleum exploration in western Canada.”

“M.Y.,” his affectionate nickname, graduated from Queen’s University at Kingston in 1909 with a B.Sc. degree in mining engineering. He was granted the Ph.D. degree in 1912 and that same year joined the regular staff of the Geological Survey. In 1921 Dr. Williams accepted an appointment as associate professor of paleontology and stratigraphy at UBC. Together with Dean R.W. Brock, Dr. S.J. Schofield, and Dr. W.L. Uglow he helped to build UBC’s Department of Geology.

His teaching duties did not prevent M.Y. from continuing his work with the Survey, taking him to the Mackenzie River, the Franklin Mountains and the western great plains. In the mid-1920s he made a geological study of Hong Kong. He worked in the West Cariboo, West Lillooet Black and the Peace River area and published extensively. He was elected Fellow of the Geological Society of America in 1916, followed in 1926 by election to Fellowship in the Royal Society (of which he became president for 1960/1.)

In 1926, Dr. Williams became full professor of paleontology and stratigraphy at UBC, and in 1936 was appointed head of the Department of Geology and Geography. He remained at this post until his retirement in 1950. “He was a kind and understanding teacher and many of his students owe him not only the grounding in geology, but also support and encouragement in their later work in the graduate school and professional life.” See this site for more.

February 10 The Fraser Street Bridge closed. It had been a low-level highway to Mitchell and Lulu islands since 1893, connecting Fraser Street in Vancouver with No. 5 Road on Lulu Island in Richmond. There was a connection to Mitchell Island en route. The 1905 bridge had a small through-truss swing span, on which the deck was replaced by open steel grating in 1962. Until it was mechanized in 1948, the bridge was opened by hand. It was obsolete some years before it was replaced by the Knight Street Bridge. See the January 15 item above.

March 1 The car insurance provisions of the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia came into force. From this date, all motor vehicles in BC were required to have ICBC insurance. The new corporation got off to a robust start with one million policies.

ICBC is a provincial Crown corporation. Today, it collects vehicle and driver premiums from more than two million motorists and invests the money to provide insurance benefits for its customers and for victims of crashes. ICBC operates on a non-profit, break-even basis. In 2004 they received 929,000 claims—more than 2,500 a day.

Also effective March 1, 1973, all BC drivers were required to keep their license plates when they bought, sold or traded their vehicle. (The legislation had been passed November 24, 1973.) Previously, motorists had retained their plates for as long as they owned a particular vehicle—once a vehicle was sold, the plates remained with it. Under the new scheme insurance was to be obtained when plates were purchased or renewed from the Motor Vehicle Branch, or newly accredited ICBC Autoplan brokers.

March 8 The Dover Arms, Vancouver’s first neighborhood pub, opened in the West End. Legislation had been passed allowing the establishment of pubs, an astonishing example of common sense. See this site.

March 19 Vancouver City Council voted to buy the Orpheum Theatre at 884 Granville Street, for use as a new concert hall, after Famous Players had revealed plans to transform the heritage building into a multiplex cinema. The largest theatre in Canada (2,780 seats) when it opened as a vaudeville house called the New Orpheum in 1927 at a cost of $500,000, the Orpheum cost the city $3.9 million and was then renovated for an additional $3.2 million. The Orpheum, which hosts various touring shows, is now home to the Vancouver Symphony Society; the Bach Choir, the Vancouver Chamber Choir and the B.C. Entertainment Hall of Fame.

March 26 Davey (David Lambie) Black, golfer, “the Wee Scot,” died in Vancouver, aged about 90. He was born in 1884 in Troon, Ayrshire, Scotland. Black began his career as an apprentice club maker in Scotland. After working at Outremont and Rivermeade golf clubs (1905-20), he moved west to become the golf pro at Shaughnessy Golf Club, a post he would hold for 25 years. (1920-45). He won four national titles, the first in 1913. In 1928 he won the first B.C. Open. In 1929 he and Duncan Sutherland beat Walter Hagen and Horton Smith at the Point Grey Golf Club. In 1935, again with Sutherland, they bested the great Bobbie Jones partnered with Davey’s son, B.C. amateur champion Kenny Black (b. July 23, 1912, Montreal, Que.; d. Nov. 25, 1995, Oakville, Ont.). Davey Black was inducted into the BC Sports Hall of Fame in 1966, into the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame in 1972. See BC Sports Hall of Fame website here.

April Vancouver Leisure Magazine was in dire straits. It had started in 1967 as Dick MacLean’s Greater Vancouver Greeter Guide. MacLean, who was still at the helm, was fired by owner Agency Press, and new editor Malcolm (Mac) Parry hired. The first issue under his guidance featured five by-lines—all of them Parry, in various disguises, including golfer/author Driver T. Niblick. By the second issue, journalist Sean Rossiter had joined Parry and, for the next two years, they produced most of the magazine’s articles. Today, as Vancouver Magazine, it’s thriving.

May 3 Vancouver’s Aquatic Centre, built to replace Crystal Pool, was officially opened. Swimmers would start using it May 6, and the first paying swimmer to use the pool was 18-year-old Jeff Veniot.

May 5 The Vancouver Whitecaps played their first game. They debuted for a crowd of 18,000 people at Empire Stadium against the San Jose Earthquakes, losing 2-1 in a shootout. One of the players was Bobby Lenarduzzi, who had turned 19 four days earlier. He would become one of the best soccer players Canada has ever produced, and would eventually appear in more NASL games than any other player. Born in Vancouver May 1, 1955, Lenarduzzi started playing for Reading Football Club in England at age 16, eventually appearing in 67 Football League games and scoring 2 goals. He made his International debut for Canada against Poland in Toronto in 1973. See a good history of the club here www.bcsoccer.net (click on ‘search,’ then enter ‘whitecaps history’) and a profile of Lenarduzzi here.

June 21 BC Rail’s Royal Hudson steam train made its inaugural run to Squamish. The big, beautiful locomotive was an instant hit with locals and tourists alike.

July 14 Jack (John Edward) Underhill, badminton athlete, died in Vancouver, aged 71. He was born September 3, 1902 in Vancouver. He was Canada’s top male badminton star from 1925 to 1947, winning numerous B.C. and national championships. His wife Eileen (1889-1988) was a woman’s champion. The Underhills were the first husband-and-wife team in the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame (1970). An annual Jack Underhill Badminton Tournament is held at the Vancouver Racquets Club.

July 21 Chung Hung, sculptor, died in Vancouver, aged just 48. He was born February 8, 1946 in Canton, China. He studied civic engineering in Hong Kong before immigrating to Canada in 1969. In 1973 Chung graduated in sculpture at Vancouver School of Art. He specialized in monumental public steel sculptures, including Gate to the North-West Passage (in Vanier Park) and Steam Columns (at 938 Howe). He was co-creator of Goddess of Democracy (installed in 1991 at UBC). He has permanent sculptures in Canada, Hong Kong and Spain. Chung received the Dal Grauer Memorial Award in 1974, and won many competition-awarded sculptures and commissions. He promoted awareness of Chinese artists in Vancouver.

July Simma Holt, a well-known Vancouver Sun reporter and author, was elected member for Vancouver-Kingsway, becoming the first Jewish woman to serve in the Canadian parliament.

August 22 The Granville Street Mall opened.

August 24 The Grand Lodge of British Columbia (Freemasons), established in 1871, officially opened at its present location, 1495 West 8th Avenue. It serves as a kind of administrative body for the other Lodges in British Columbia and rents meeting space to about 25 of them.

September 1 Pauline Jewett, 51, became president of Simon Fraser University, the first female president of a major Canadian university. She would hold that post until October 9, 1978. During her tenure women’s studies, a seniors program, distance education into B.C.’s interior, and an innovative child-care centre were established.

For an interesting glimpse into her style, go to this site and read “Remembering Pauline Jewett,” by Meredith Kimball, Professor Emerita, Women’s Studies and Psychology, comments made by Professor Kimball at a memorial service held on campus shortly after Dr. Jewett’s death July 5, 1992.

September 30 Canadian Pacific ended its ferry service to Seattle.

October 16 Hockey’s Paul Kariya was born in Vancouver.

Also October 16 Official opening of the St. Roch National Historic Site. It was 30 years to the day after its return from its historic voyage through the Northwest Passage, and some of the former crew were on hand for the ceremonies. An RCMP vessel, the St. Roch became the centrepiece of a major display in its own building beside Vancouver’s Maritime Museum. The ship is unique because she was the first ship to traverse the Northwest Passage in both directions, and the first ship to circumnavigate North America.

October 29 The Seaspan Commodore was registered. She was built at Vancouver Shipyards. The 142-foot (40.4 m), 5750-bhp deep sea tug, with a speed of 14.5 knots, became the flagship of the North Vancouver-based Seaspan International fleet. The Commodore tows the Seaspan Forester, the world’s largest log barge and barges of lumber, salt, gravel and clinker between Vancouver and Californian, Mexican and Alaskan ports.

November 12 Arbutus Village Square opened in Vancouver. Construction had started in 1972. The 30-acre, $20 million complex at 4255 Arbutus, built by Marathon Realty, included 450 housing units, a park and a 30-store shopping centre. The project had a rocky beginning, with its neighbours almost exactly evenly divided over whether they wanted it or not.

November 30 Last movie at the Capitol Theatre before its renovation as a multiplex.

November Harbour Publishing produced a book titled Raincoast Chronicles First Five, a collection of the first issues of the magazine Raincoast Chronicles. It was a smash.

December Vancouver began a program of designating “Heritage Buildings.” These were structures that, for various reasons (historical, architectural, aesthetic), were protected from demolition or exterior change.

The first 20 buildings so designated, with their location and year of construction , were:

1. Hastings Mill Store (1865) 1575 Alma
2. Christ Church Cathedral (1889-95) 690 Burrard
3. St. James Church (1935-37) 303 East Cordova
4. CPR Station (1912-14) 601 West Cordova
5. Gabriola (1901) 1531 Davie
6. National Harbours Board (1905) 50 Dunlevy
7. Court House (1906-13) 800 West Georgia
8. Orpheum Theatre (1927) 884 Granville
9. Shannon (1912-13) 7255 Granville
10. Bank of Commerce (1906-08) 640-698 West Hastings
11. Old Post Office Building (1905-10) 757 West Hastings
12. Credit Foncier Building (1913-14) 850 West Hastings
13. Hycroft (1909) 1489 McRae
14. Heritage Hall (1914) 3102 Main
15. Glen Brae (1910) 1690 Matthews
16. St. Andrew’s Wesley Church (1931-33) 1012 Nelson
17. Sun Tower (1912) 100 West Pender
18. Holy Rosary Cathedral (1899-1900) 646 Richards
19. Aberthau (1909) 4397 West 2nd
20. Hudson Bay Co. Store (1913 & 1926) 640 Granville

Also in 1974

Jack Blaney began at Simon Fraser University as Dean of Education. Blaney began teaching at a secondary school in Osoyoos in 1960. He was appointed director of the study discussion program in liberal arts at UBC’s extension department in 1962. By 1974 he was associate director of the university’s Centre for Continuing Education. In 1997 he will become president of Simon Fraser University. Later he will help to establish both the downtown Harbour Centre campus and the Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue.

Vicki Gabereau, latterly a Vancouver TV talk show personality, ran for mayor of Toronto as a character named Rosie the Clown.

Popular Steve Woodman, “the man of 1,000 voices,” was badly injured when, driving home after appearing on a telethon, his car hit black ice, went over an embankment and rolled out of control. He sustained severe head injuries, was in a coma for a long time, and did not regain his voice. The accident ended an outstanding career in which his voice skills had been called on often. He eventually emerged from the coma, was even able to play a bit of golf, but he never worked again. He died in his sleep March 13, 1990.

CKNW Radio’s Norm Grohmann joined the cast of CBC Radio’s Dr. Bundolo’s Pandemonium Medicine Show, replacing Steve Woodman. Other cast members at this time included Marla Gropper, Bill Buck and Bill Reiter. Bundolo was produced by Don Kowalchuk, written by Jeffrey Groberman and Dan Thatchuk (now Colin Yardley) and ran from 1972 to 1980.

Will Senger took over as chairman of the Cloverdale Rodeo and helped orchestrate a 10-year turnaround. In 1983 the Cloverdale Rodeo would attract more contestants than the Calgary Stampede and pack 20,000 spectators into the arena. Will Senger is still with the association as the Arena Manager.

Perry Goldsmith began Contemporary Communications Ltd., one subsidiary of which is a personal management division, another the National Speakers Bureau. NSB gets celebrated people to talk to groups of all kinds. Goldsmith—born September 22, 1947 in Vancouver—has a lot of high profile people in his stable, like Nancy Greene Raine, Olympic gold medalist Mark Tewksbury, CBC National Magazine contributor Rex Murphy, futurist Frank Ogden, newsman Kevin Newman and more than 100 others. “When I started in this business,” he says, “the demand for Canadian speakers was limited, now our clients have a strong interest in hearing Canadian perspectives.”

Australia-born (September 29, 1930) Richard Bonynge (bonning) took over from Irving Guttman as artistic director of Vancouver Opera. Some of the operas he would conduct from now until 1978 would feature his wife, the great soprano Joan Sutherland, ‘La Stupenda.’ (Born November 7, 1926 in Sydney, Australia. See a good brief bio of her here) “The Bonynge years—1974 to 1978—began with great promise,” Ray Chatelin wrote in The Greater Vancouver Book, “and ended with the last half of the 1977-78 season being cancelled because of mounting debt. Bonynge, though often mired in controversy about finances and programming, changed the direction of the company. He created his own orchestra and established a resident training program, both of which are foundations of the current operation. He was succeeded by Hamilton McClymont, formerly of the Canada Council, whose primary objective was to bring the operation back into financial stability.”

A huge rock attraction was born when Bachman Turner Overdrive, managed by Bruce Allen, exploded out of Vancouver. Their first LP had been released May 17, 1973, but it was the 1974 release of Not Fragile that made them internationally known. Their biggest hit single, Takin’ Care of Business, is still being heard more than 30 years after it was released. See this site for a brief bio and discography.

Advertising agency Griffiths Gibson Ramsay Productions and Western International Broadcasting Co. invested $500,000 to open Little Mountain Studio. Among the celebrated groups that recorded there before the studio’s demise in 1994: Aerosmith, Bon Jovi and AC/DC.

Mushroom Records was founded by brothers Wink and Dick Vogel. An early Mushroom LP. Dreamboat Annie by Heart, sold four million copies. The label would declare bankruptcy in 1980, a year after the death of its vice-president and creative sparkplug, Shelly Siegel.

The Douglas Recreation Centre was built in Langley. It contained a gymnasium, multipurpose room, preschool room and games room, etc.

A young Vancouver lawyer and alderman, Michael Harcourt, criticized Vancouver police for their “Eliot Ness-style raids” on gay bars and bathhouses

The Red Book first appeared. This was an initiative of the Community Information Service (known today as Information Services Vancouver), and had actually begun back in 1957, when they realized their comprehensive card catalogue of community services in the Lower Mainland would be useful to many other agencies and services. They began to publish it every two years. This year the directory was published in a red, three-ring binder and thus was born The Red Book. In 1977 it would begin to be published annually because of rapid changes in the information. (70 per cent of the listings change each year.) In June 1996 a computerized version would begin. It is used by doctors, lawyers, educators, clergy, human resources staff, emergency services workers and others. More than 5,000 social, community and government agencies and services are in the data base.

Their web site says “calls have been increasing annually, and in 2004-2005 we responded to 60,173 enquiries, our highest number of calls ever—and almost 10,000 more calls than we received in 2003-2004.”

British Columbia became a partner with the other three Western Provinces in the creation of the Western Canada Lottery Foundation. A Lottery Act was passed by our legislature creating an agency for the operation and oversight of provincially conducted and managed lotteries. Included was responsibility for licensing and regulating charitable and religious gaming activity.

Poet Pat Lowther was elected co-chair of the League of Canadian Poets and appointed to the B.C. Arts Council.

Poet Peter Trower (once known as BC’s “voice from the bunkhouse”), who had worked for 22 years as a logger, produced Between the Sky and the Splinters, a collection of his poems to that point. A 1976 film about him by CBC was given the same title. For a fine interview with Trower by BC Bookworld’s Alan Twigg, go to www.abcbookworld.com and click on “Trower.”

Richard V. Whiteside’s The Surrey Pioneers was published by Evergreen Press.

Alan Morley’s fine history of the city, Vancouver: From Milltown to Metropolis, originally published in 1961, appeared in a third edition.

Raymond Hull and publisher Gordon Soules and his wife Christine collaborated on “an extensive sociological and economic study” titled Vancouver’s Past. See this site.

Dick Culbert’s book Alpine Guide to Southwestern British Columbia was published.

Chief Dan George’s book My Hearts Soars appeared.

Fort Langley lawyer John Cherrington produced his first book Mission On The Fraser.

A slim collection of five stories from Scott Watson, Stories, appeared.

Five book publishers cooperated to found the Association of Book Publishers of B.C. In 2005, out of more than 50 members, 18 based in the Greater Vancouver area cover every type of book publishing including literary, poetry, educational, scholarly and a full range of trade books. See this site.

Several publications debuted in 1974. They include:

Canadian Journal of Botany — Revue Canadienne de Botanique A monthly bilingual academic journal on research in botany, published under the auspices of the National Research Council Research Journals.

Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering — Revue Canadienne de Genie Civil A bimonthly bilingual academic journal on research in research in civil engineering, published under the auspices of the National Research Council Research Journals.

Canadian Journal of Communication A quarterly, issued by Communications, Harbour Centre, Simon Fraser University. It was an academic journal on communications and telecommunications.

East Side Revue, a community bi-weekly, distributed free to households in the area, and free at various drop points

Westbridge Art Market Report: The Newsletter for Fine Art Collectors and Investors, a bi-monthly from Westbridge Publications Ltd.

Vancouver Taped Books began. It was a project funded by a federal Local Initiatives Project grant. Now named Audiobooks, another 250 or so titles are added each year to the more than 5,000 released so far. The Library Services Branch signed an agreement in the later 1990s with the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency to record work by well-known Canadian authors including Alice Munro, Margaret Atwood, Robertson Davies and Bill Richardson. Nearly 6,000 people throughout British Columbia use the service yearly.

Well-known garden expert David Tarrant became Education Coordinator at UBC’s Botanical Garden.

Dr. David Suzuki began as host of CBC-TV’s The Nature of Things. He’s still doing it!

The movie The Wolfpen Principle was released. Written and directed by Jack Darcus, the film tells the story of a holocaust survivor (Vladimir Valenta) who joins a young Coast Salish mystic (Laurence Brown) in a plot to free the wolves in the Stanley Park zoo. Michael Walsh, movie historian, says of the director: “Vancouver’s ranking auteur, Jack Winston Darcus (born Feb. 22, 1941) has created a distinctive body of work in his own home town. A successful painter as well as a film-maker, Darcus has written and directed six feature dramas that reflect his personal vision as a B.C.-born artist. In each, he creates complex and allegorical social relationships that illuminate moments in the maturation of the Canadian West Coast experience.”

Byron Black’s movie The Holy Assassin was released.. “Adding a science-fictional twist to his visual experimentation,” Michael Walsh wrote, “director Black’s second feature involves a metaphysical criminal from another dimension hiding out in a local hippie commune.”

And, of director Paul Krasny’s film Christina, Walsh wrote: “Planning to make his home here, producer Trevor (Groundstar Conspiracy) Wallace found backers for this mystery romance, a vehicle for Vancouver-born actress Barbara Parkins.”

A big untitled metal sculpture by George Norris (whose more famous Crab fountain is a visual highlight in front of the Vancouver Museum) was erected in front of the Vancouver Eaton’s store at Granville and Georgia. In a 1981 guide book, Terry Noble described the piece as “a majestic, glistening, glinting dragonfly, bowing gracefully to all who pass.” It would be removed in 1987 and is currently stored in Surrey’s works yard.

The BC Cancer Institute changed its name to the Cancer Control Agency of BC.

The Workmen’s Compensation Board became the Workers Compensation Board.

Johnny Carson came to Vancouver to plug his new restaurant chain, Here’s Johnny! He had a long lunch with Red Robinson. See this site.

Harold Scanlon Foley, forestry executive, died in Vancouver, aged about 74. He was the head of his family’s Powell River Company (est. 1905), and oversaw its merger with MacMillan Bloedel in 1959. The pulp mill PRC established at Powell River was, for a time, the largest in the world. Among other firsts, the company created BC’s first medical plan. Foley was respected both by executives and by workers and their unions. His co-chairmanship at MacMillan Bloedel was overshadowed by his more volatile co-chairman, J.V. Clyne. Foley—nicknamed the Silver Fox—was a significant (and often anonymous) philanthropist. “He was both an elegant and cultured member of Vancouver society.”

ISE (International Submarine Engineering) of Port Coquitlam began in Port Moody as McIlhenny Offshore Surveying and Engineering. In 1976 its founder and president James McFarlane will change the name. They design and build robotic submersibles. (McFarlane had been in the Canadian Navy for 18 years, engaged in building manned submersibles. After leaving the navy he had a notion to build a “revolutionary” tethered vehicle . . . but discovered when he started that eight or nine companies were already doing it. So he began to concentrate on remotely operated vehicles.)

McFarlane started with two people. He employs 110 today, and annual revenue is about $10 million.

Minneapolis entrepreneur Tom Scallen, owner of the Vancouver Canucks since 1970, found himself in financial and legal trouble, and sold the team for $9 million to Frank Griffith’s Vancouver based telecommunications company, Western Broadcasting.

The Jericho Sailing Centre began operating at Jericho Beach. It’s a non-profit, self-supporting association, under the aegis of the city Parks Board. They call themselves “Vancouver’s Ocean Access Community Centre.” Completely land-based, the centre has 3,000 members, 13 affiliated clubs, four schools, and is a site for thousands of launchings of kayaks, canoes, sailboards and sailboats. A unique affiliate is the Disabled Sailing Association whose members take to the water in specially modified boats. See this site.

The original, bellows-operated diaphone foghorn at the Point Atkinson Lighthouse was replaced by diesel-powered airchimes, the sound of which carried five to ten miles. It came to be called “Old Wahoo,” and there would be unhappiness in 1996 when it was in turn replaced by a solar-powered electronic signal rated for two miles—“like replacing an oboe with a penny whistle,” said one old salt.

BC Rail refurbished its famous 2860 steam engine, known as the Royal Hudson, and placed it in excursion service between North Vancouver and Squamish. Each summer, from mid-May through mid-September, the Royal Hudson hauled 1940s-style passenger coaches, baggage cars and a dining car through some of the most picturesque mountain and ocean scenery in Canada. This popular, historic excursion was enjoyed by as many as 70,000 passengers each season and became a feature of British Columbia’s booming tourism industry. Unfortunately, because of cutbacks at BC Rail, and maintenance required on the locomotive, the excursions have come to an end. A campaign by rail enthusiasts was underway in 2005 to raise the necessary funds. (The reason for the “Royal Hudson” name: in 1939, when King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, were touring Canada, the King was so impressed with the huge and handsome locomotives used to haul their train that when the CPR—the original owners—asked if he would agree to their affixing the “Royal” prefix to the railway’s Hudson locomotives he happily agreed.)

Pacific Princess, famous as TV’s ‘Love Boat,’ and her sistership Island Princess began sailing out of Vancouver’s harbor in the Alaska cruise trade. They would carry on in that trade until 1991. They “starred” in the series, which ran on ABC-TV from 1977 to 1986. The 20,000-ton vessels, owned by P&O’s Princess Cruises, were built in Germany.

In May, 1985 the series began using the 45,000-ton Royal Princess of the English Princess Cruise Lines as the regular ship on the series.

Construction began on Robson Square in the 800 block Robson Street. Architectural historian Harold Kalman has written: “This extensive complex combines the glass-roofed Law Courts, defined by the distinctive bold shape of its steel space frame, with landscaped public spaces (Cornelia Hahn Oberlander and Raoul Robillard, landscape architects) that invite public activity on several levels, inside and out. The rightist Social Credit provincial government of the early 1970s was determined to build an aggressive 55-storey office tower here. The New Democratic Party government that won the 1973 election dismissed the proposed big-business image by changing architects and architectural programmes, laying the tower on its side, and producing a low, multi-block courthouse that is symbolically and physically more accessible—so accessible that we can walk on it! All this shows how architecture can provide a powerful political symbol.”

The North Vancouver Civic Centre, at 121 West 14th Street, opened. The Centre housed the city’s municipal hall and library. Designer was Barry Downs of Downs Archambault. “Most of the site,” writes Harold Kalman, “is given over to park space, leaving the buildings so understated—perhaps a reflection of the talented architect’s modesty—that some visitors have trouble finding them.”

The handsome old terra cotta Birks Building, at the southeast corner of Granville and Georgia since 1912, was demolished. This generated the most anger and sadness for a lost building since the 1967 demolition of the Pantages Theatre at 20 West Hastings Street.

The Bentall III office building at 595 Burrard was built. With 32 storeys, it stands 122 metres high.

The Burnaby Civic Employees Union Memorial Fountain, designed by William Williamson and erected in 1923 to honor union members killed in the First World War, was moved from its original location (on Kingsway near Edmonds at the old Municipal Hall) to Burnaby Village Museum at 6501 Deer Lake Avenue.

John R. Fisk ended his term as Vancouver’s Chief Constable (he had begun in 1968) and was succeeded by Donald R. Winterton, who would serve as the city’s top cop to 1981.

The Reverend Stanley Higgs retired at 70. The career of this remarkable gentleman will be covered in more detail when we get 1983 up. Stan died April 16, 1983 in Vancouver. For an excerpt from Strange Harvest, a famous poem he wrote during the Second World War, see our 1944 chronology.

Mary Pack, arthritis campaigner, 69, was awarded the Order of Canada. The “angel of mobility” had devoted her life to arthritis and rheumatism care and research. To quote the web site: “Mary Pack was a visionary whose dream of a world without arthritis led her to found The Arthritis Society. A home-schooling teacher who counted among her students children who were bedridden because of the devastating effects of arthritis, Mary Pack determined to make their lives better. It became a life-long passion, one to which she dedicated her considerable energy and intelligence until her death in 1992 at the age of 87.”

Violet Pooley Sweeny, golfer, was inducted posthumously into the BC Sports Hall of Fame. See her obituary in the 1965 chronology for more.

The Greater Vancouver Housing Corporation was incorporated. Their web site says:

“As a wholly-owned subsidiary of the GVRD, the Greater Vancouver Housing Corporation (GVHC) functions as a non-profit organization, managing more than 3,600 rental units and providing affordable housing for a mix of income levels.”

RENTAL PROPERTIES
GVHC owns and operates housing sites around the Lower Mainland, providing housing for more than 10,000 people, at rental rates that are below average for the types of units provided.

CLIENT ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS
The GVHC is a non-profit organization established to provide affordable housing for low-, moderate- and middle-income households. In order to perform this role, rental assistance programs are offered to clients.

The Children’s Hospital opened a “Care by Parent” unit.

Greek Day, an annual celebration by Vancouver’s Greek community began. It would happen—largely centered on West Broadway between MacDonald and Waterloo—every year until 1988, when it would be replaced by two smaller events, a Greek Summer Festival at St. Nicholas-Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church on Boundary Road in East Vancouver and a similar event at the Hellenic Community Centre in Kerrisdale.

The Charles Crane Memorial Library is one of a kind in Canada. Since 1970 the library and its dedicated volunteers have recorded talking textbooks and background materials. A special disbursement was established in 1974 as a continuous funding base for the library, staff, book budgets and raw materials.

NITEP (the Native Indian Teacher Education Program) began at UBC in 1974. Seven students graduated in 1985 and the program admitted its first Masters students in 1986. To quote their web site: “NITEP is a UBC Bachelor of Education Program (Elementary or Secondary) guided by an advisory council of Aboriginal educators and community members, UBC faculty, a coordinator representative, a BCTF representative, and NITEP students. NITEP builds upon Aboriginal identity and cultural heritage while preparing and challenging persons of Aboriginal ancestry to be effective educators for public, band and independent schools in BC.”

Vancouver City College became Vancouver Community College when it separated from the Vancouver School Board in 1974.

B.C. Ferries bought a ferry for $13.8 million and named it the Queen of Surrey. She would be retired after just two years, but then put on the Queen Charlotte run in 1980. More than $10 million was spent refurbishing her to serve as the Queen of the North. Under that name, the ship—with 99 passengers and crew aboard—would sink after hitting a rock about 135 kilometres south of Prince Rupert on March 22, 2006. Two passengers lost their lives. All other passengers and crew were rescued.