1990

Above: The Roedde House Museum opened at 1415 Barclay Street in 1990.
[Image: Vancouver City Archives CVA 775-51]

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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!
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January 10 Laurence J. Peter, writer, died in Palos Verdes, California, aged 70. Dr. Laurence Johnston Peter was born in Vancouver September 16, 1919 and might have toiled forever in obscurity as a teacher at UBC if he hadn’t bumped into Vancouver writer Raymond Hull in the Metro Theatre. They were standing in the lobby during an intermission of an amateur production, and Hull—who didn’t know Peter—casually commented that the production was a failure. Peter responded with an observation that people in any hierarchy invariably rise to their level of incompetence.

The result of that lobby conversation, struck up so casually, was the best-selling book that has ever come out of Vancouver.

Ray Hull was intrigued by that line of Peter’s, and collaborated with him on a book they called The Peter Principle. A satire on corporate structure, it was rejected by more than 20 publishers before it was finally accepted by William Morrow & Co. in 1969, and went on to sell more than eight million copies—translated into more than 20 languages. The central idea of the book is encapsulated in a phrase still in use today: “In a hierarchy, every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence.”

After the book took off, Peter moved to southern California to teach and write more books.

He had a gift for phrase making: “Television has changed the American child from an irresistible force into an immovable object.””Going to church does not make you a Christian anymore than going to the garage makes you a car.”

January 15 VIA Rail cut half of its passenger network. Included in these cuts was a decision to run just one transcontinental train between Toronto and Vancouver via CN’s route through Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Edmonton and Jasper.

January 21 Elod Macskasy, mathematics teacher and chess player, died in Vancouver. He was born in Hungary April 17, 1919, came to Vancouver in 1956. Wrote Nathan Divinsky, a friend and fellow chess enthusiast, “He taught mathematics at UBC for over 30 years, and was B.C.’s top chess player for most of that time. He won the Canadian Open Championship in 1958 and had a great influence on all the young B.C. chess players. He played on a number of Canadian Olympic chess teams, and always with distinction. In the late ’50s and early ’60s, he often could be found at the old Heidelberg Restaurant on Robsonstrasse, the hangout for European immigrants. Macskasy was a gentle, artistic man, a wonderful friend.”

Thanks to the generous support of the UBC Department of Mathematics, the inaugural Macskasy Memorial chess tournament would be held in 2005 in the same building where Prof. Macskasy worked. There is an excellent illustrated reminiscence by his friends of Macskasy here.

February 8 Richard Loney (famous for singing O Canada at Canucks games) sang TWO versions of the national anthem at a meeting of the Canadian Club in Vancouver. The first one Loney sang had words written in 1909 by a Vancouver banker named Ewing Buchan, a version that had gained a lot of popularity those many decades ago . . . but was eventually beaten out by the R.S. Weir version we know today. Loney sang the Weir version to close the meeting. The first public singing of the Buchan version of O Canada took place at a luncheon meeting of The Canadian Club in Vancouver on February 9th, 1910.

For more, see the article on O Canada! on our Archives page.

March 13 The last two strands of a fibre-optic network were fused together in Vancouver, completing the longest land-based network of its kind in the world: more than 7,000 km from coast to coast. The network was built by the ten member telephone companies of Telecom Canada, including B.C. Tel (now Telus). It was the first and only system in the country capable of transmitting voice, data and video communication all on one network. (It was claimed the entire Encyclopaedia Britannica could be sent across Canada in less than a second.)

Also March 13 Steve Woodman, entertainer, died in Vancouver, aged 62. Stephen Francis Woodman was born August 24, 1927 in Saskatoon, Sask. The Vancouver Broadcasters website tells us: “Announcer CJCA, CFRN and CKUA Edmonton early 1950s; announcer/narrator CBC Montreal 1956-58 including voice of Miss Juggs, narrator In The Story Book 1957 and host Stevie-O 1958; with co-host Keith Rich: Woodman & Rich mornings CKWX Vancouver 1960-61, p.m. drive CKEY Toronto 1961, Montreal and WNBC New York; Los Angeles; p.m. drive CKWX 1969-73.”

Woodman was known as “the man of 1,000 voices” on popular radio and TV shows from CKUA Edmonton to WNBC New York. Woodman was the first Ronald McDonald in L.A., where he hosted a TV show and performed in movies and award-winning commercials with the legendary Mel Blanc. He moved to Vancouver in 1971. He was one of the cast of CBC’s Dr. Bundolo’s Pandemonium Medicine Show, recorded live at UBC’s student union building. He hosted CKWX’s Steve’s Place and Vancouver Variety Club telethons. After a 1974 telethon, a car accident on black ice in Delta nearly took his life and ended his career.

March 19 The first full day of operation of the SkyBridge, built to carry the SkyTrain across the Fraser to Surrey. The $28 million transit-only structure was built by Kerkhoff Bridge and Industrial Division Ltd., of Chilliwack, and Hyundai Engineering and Construction Division Co. Ltd. of Korea. Construction had started October 28, 1987.

The 616-metre- (2,020 feet) long structure was part of a $179 million, 3.1 kilometre SkyTrain extension. It is set aslant the Fraser River to ease the curve coming from New Westminster. The bridge, which carries trains 50 metres above the Fraser, is the world’s longest cable-stayed bridge designed solely for rapid transit. There are two tracks, enabling SkyTrains to pass on the bridge. The 104 deck sections were built in Richmond, barged up the Fraser and then lifted into place by heavy equipment. Thirty-five thousand cubic metres of concrete (4,000 truckloads), 13.5 kilometres of stay cables and 13 kilometres of steel pilings were used in the construction. The bridge’s two towers are each 123 metres (404 feet) high.

Spring The 1990 inductees into the Vancouver Board of Trade Hall of Fame (awarded to companies or organizations active in the city for 100 years) were:

• Vancouver General Hospital
• Bull, Housser & Tupper
• Edward Chapman
• BC Transit

April 11 Phyllis Munday, mountaineer, died in Nanaimo, aged about 95. She was born Phyllis James in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) in 1895. (We have also seen 1894.) She came to Vancouver in 1901, climbed Grouse Mountain at age 10. “With her husband Don Munday,” writes Constance Brissenden, “she did early backbreaking explorations of B.C. coastal mountains, notably Mt. Waddington. She made many first ascents of highest peaks in Coast Range. She was the first woman to climb Mt. Robson (1924). A Girl Guider from 1910 to 1945, she began Vancouver’s first company (1910) with her mother. In 1924 she founded the Lone Guides for girls in isolated areas. After retiring, she was named B.C.’s woodcraft and nature advisor. She was awarded the Bronze Cross for carrying an injured man down Grouse Mountain. Phyllis Munday was made a Member of the Order of Canada in 1975.” On August 15, 1998 a stamp commemorating her was issued.

The Phyl Munday Nature House in Lighthouse Park is maintained by volunteers in her memory. In 1948 Don Munday published The Unknown Mountain to chronicle their adventures. The book was reprinted in 1993 by Coyote Books in an expanded version that included Beyond the Unknown Mountain by Angus M. Gunn. Don Munday died in 1950.

April 15 The Canada Customs building at the Pacific Highway border crossing was closed for a few hours for safety checks after earthquake tremors shook it. There was minimal damage.

April 20 Bryan Adams is named a member of the Order of Canada. The Order’s citation reads: “One of Canada’s most successful recording artists and multi-Juno award winner, this international rock super-star has made enormous contributions to the pop music industry, for helping to develop an infrastructure to propel other Canadian artists to the of the charts. He is a positive influence on young people who has not become jaded by his success but rather has used it to support social change and worthy causes from famine relief to human rights.”

In May of 1998 Adams will be promoted within the Order to the rank of Officer.

April 27 “Chunky” Woodward, retailer, died in Vancouver, aged 66. Charles Nanby Wynn Woodward was born March 23, 1924 in Vancouver. Wrote Constance Brissenden: “He was the grandson of Charles A. Woodward, who founded the store, and son of W.C. Woodward. He fought in the Second World War with the 12th Manitoba Dragoons. In 1946 Chunky joined the family company. In October 1956 he was named president of Woodward’s B.C. and Alberta chain. He was involved in the B.C. Place Stadium and the Whistler Mountain developments. He worked with horses at his 220,000-hectare Douglas Lake ranch and established rodeo circuits across Western Canada. He received the W.A.C. Bennett Award for sports contributions from the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame in 1986. He resigned as Woodward’s president in 1988. The firm was purchased by The Bay in 1993.”

May 12 Roedde House Museum opened at 1415 Barclay Street. This restored 1893 house was built for Gustav and Mathilda Roedde. Their website says, in part, “Work on the interior of Roedde House was lengthy and painstaking, with faithful attention to detail gleaned from historical records of contemporary houses, from consultation with surviving members of the Roedde family and from the process of stripping paint and wallpaper from century-old walls to discover the original colours and finishings. The house was restored and authentically furnished with all the accoutrements of middle-class life in the 1890s. Most recently, the restoration of the second floor of the museum – two children’s bedrooms and Matilda’s sewing room – was completed in March of 2000.”

Janet Bingham has written (1996) More Than a House: The Story of Roedde House and Barclay Heritage Square, a history of this charming attraction and the historical compound on which it stands.

May 29 The Hongkong Bank (now HSBC Bank Canada) bought Lloyds Bank Canada. With its purchase May 20, 1988 of Midland Bank Canada the bank added nearly $5 billion in assets and 53 new branches, mainly in Ontario and Quebec.

June 6 Marianne Linnell, civic leader, died in Vancouver, aged about 76. “She was born,” writes Constance Brissenden, “in 1914 in Calgary. A Vancouver NPA alderman, first elected in 1961, she served five terms to 1974. She was the only woman member of Canada’s Centennial Commission. She chaired many committees from the Queen Elizabeth Theatre to sewers. In 1963, as chair of the B.C. Aviation Council, she banned backyard burning. She rejected Social Credit and ran as MLA for the Conservatives (Vancouver-Point Grey, 1972) but was defeated by Garde Gardom. A spokesperson for small business, municipal affairs and “that forgotten individual, the housewife,” she was described as “more rare steak than asparagus souffle.”

June 21 Among recipients of the Order of British Columbia this year:

• Erwin Swangard, one of Canada’s best known and most widely travelled journalists.
• Jack Shadbolt, long recognized as an artist of international stature, but whose work has always spoken with a West Coast accent. His images of our landscape transformed through his artistic vision have had a major influence on the development of Canadian painting.
• Robert G. Rogers. Soldier, forest industry executive and BC Lieutenant-Governor from 1993 to 1998.
• Leslie Peterson, a Vancouver lawyer and the province’s attorney general from 1968 to 1972.
• Jim Pattison, described as a “uniquely Canadian entrepreneur.”
• Oscar Orr, a soldier, lawyer, magistrate and war-crimes trial prosecutor. He was 98 at the time of his induction.
• Dr. Margaret Ormsby, the dean of BC historians. Her British Columbia: a History (1964) is a standard work.
• Nathan Nemetz. “He has served British Columbia with dedication and distinction as a mediator, arbitrator and judicial administrator.” He was made a Justice of the Supreme Court of B.C. in 1963 and a Justice of the Court of Appeal in 1968.
• Grace McInnis, an extraordinary Member of Parliament and social activist.
• Anne MacDonald, whose accomplishments include the establishment of Presentation Hours Arts Centre in North Vancouver, one of the finest community art centres in the Province. She was also responsible for the preservation of St. John’s Church and giving it new life as a recital hall appropriately called Anne MacDonald Hall.
• Robert H. Lee, philanthropist and business leader. “His stature in the business community includes appointments as trustee of the Bank of British Columbia, a directorship of the Real Estate Institute of Canada and of the Port Authority of Vancouver.”
• Dr. Walter Koerner, founder with his brothers of the Alaska Pine and Cellulose Company, benefactor to the University of British Columbia and co-founder of the Koerner Foundation.
• Rick Hansen. He “exemplifies the triumph of determination over personal tragedy. He thereby has set, for all British Columbians, the highest standard of individual accomplishment in the face of adversity.”
• Gurdev Gill, a pioneer of the Indo-Canadian community in British Columbia. He was the first Indo-Canadian to graduate with a medical degree from the University of British Columbia and the first Indo-Canadian to practice medicine in Canada.
• Lori Fung, who capped her brilliant athletic career with the distinction of winning the first Gold Medal ever in rhythmic gymnastics at the 1984 Olympic Games.
• Helmut Eppich, who with his twin brother Hugo established EBCO Industries Limited. “The company is a great success story, having grown from a small tool and die shop into a multi-faceted group of companies engaged in heavy equipment manufacturing, high-tech, sophisticated computer data collection systems and aerospace technology.”
• Joseph Cohen, “a successful businessman who has become an outstanding philanthropist locally, nationally and internationally. A highly respected leader, he has supported and raised millions of dollars for a variety of worthy causes.”
• Dr. David Boyes, who built the Cancer Control Agency of British Columbia into a world-class institute.
• Henry Bell-Irving, decorated soldier, and Lieutenant-Governor of BC from 1978 to 1983.
• Bryan Adams. “With album sales exceeding 10 million, Bryan Adams has established himself as one of the world’s most successful music talents. His schedule of concerts which takes him around the world is frenetic. He has performed several times to live audiences in excess of 100,000 and to millions on television.”

A group portrait of the 1990 recipients can be seen here. The same website has short biographical sketches of the Order’s members.

June 29 Tom Hawthorn had an interesting article in the Province today on the “change ringing” of the bells of Holy Rosary Cathedral. The first peal from the eight bells of Holy Rosary Cathedral, he informed us, occurred July 1, 1911. It was also the first peal in Canada of 5,000 changes or more without a break. It took three hours. The bells were cast in France. They were delivered to the church in 1900. The brass bells, “named after the Seven Sacraments, were not tuned to a scale.” They were reshipped to a foundry in Briston, England, where some were melted and recast to complete a full octave of eight bells. “The heaviest,” Hawthorn wrote, “is an 813-kilogram (1,792-pound) tenor . . .”

A very interesting Wikipedia article on “change ringing” describes it as “the art of ringing a set of tuned bells in a series of mathematical patterns called ‘changes’ without attempting to ring a conventional tune.”

July 21 Tom Alsbury, former Vancouver mayor (1959-1962), died, aged about 86. He was the first mayor born in the 20th century. Albert Thomas Alsbury was born in 1904 in Edinburgh. Wrote Donna-Jean McKinnon in The Greater Vancouver Book: “Alsbury gained notoriety with his policy of closing Board of Administration meetings to the public, saying he had ‘no intention of taking a second look at the policy.’ Despite his progressive goals and humanitarian interests, (he’d worked for the CCF for 24 years before resigning to run for mayor), his abrasive, hard-nosed personal style alienated many would-be supporters and eventually led the Non-Partisan Association (NPA) to reject his candidacy for the mayoralty term of 1963-64. He later became a lively radio commentator on civic and provincial affairs, and became involved in improving the lot of senior citizens.”

August 4 20,000 people marched into B.C. Place Stadium for the opening ceremonies of Celebration ’90: Gay Games III and Cultural Festival. “Celebration ’90,” say its organizers, “was much more than a tourist bonanza for the local economy ($15 million, according to some estimates); it was also the world’s largest sporting and cultural event that year with 8,500 participants in 29 sports and 14 cultural events.”

Wrote Daniel Gawthrop in The Greater Vancouver Book: “For Vancouver gays and lesbians, the Games also marked a turning point that would have a rippling effect across the country. With a single event, ‘queer culture’ became more visible in politics, media, entertainment and advertising than ever before. This would have been unthinkable ten years earlier, when Vancouver city council voted down a COPE proposal to proclaim Gay Unity Week.”

August 23 The Surrey campus of Kwantlen College officially opened. There is a description of the opening, and a photo, here. The old Surrey campus closed for good, and several divisions of Kwantlen’s Newton campus also moved to the new site.

August Designated Schedule A heritage structures were:

• 117 West 10th, built in 1895
• 140 West 10th, built in 1910
• 144 West 10th, built in 1894
• 148 West 10th, built in 1908
• 150 West 10th, built in 1907
• 156 West 10th, built in 1894
• 2953-55 Ontario Street, built in 1907
• 989 Bute Street, built in 1899
• 1235 Nelson Street, built in 1931

The West 10th locations are the famous “Davis houses,” buildings beautifully and carefully restored by the John Davis family.

Designated a Schedule B heritage structures was:

• Kensington Place, 1386 Nicola, built in 1912

September 2 The Vancouver Indy began this year. “The city’s choked downtown streets,” wrote Gordon McIntyre in The Greater Vancouver Book, “had never seen anything like it. Methanol-propelled Indy racing cars made their debut in Vancouver’s commercial core in the summer of 1990, zipping along residential lanes, through long shadows thrown by office towers and under SkyTrain rails at speeds of up to 370 kilometres per hour (230 m.p.h.).

“Many downtown and West End residents weren’t impressed—three days of high-pitched hell that gave them an idea of what it must be like to live beside an airport runway. But tourism and economic officials were gleeful: millions of people worldwide watching the race live, giving Vancouver free advertising the tourism board couldn’t afford: $25 million in economic spinoff pumped into local coffers; 25,000 out-of-town visitors.”

By 1996 the event would draw more than 70,000 people to race day Sunday and more than 170,000 in total for the three days of practice qualifying and racing.

“Roughly speaking,” McIntyre continued, “the boomerang-shaped course is 2.65 kilometres long. The cars drive clockwise, taking about 50 seconds to complete a lap (10 or 11 corners) and average about 160 kmh on a dry, sunny day.

“It takes 340 truckloads of asphalt (5,000 tonnes) to make the track, which is ringed by 2,000 steel-reinforced concrete barriers, each 12-feet long, 2.5 feet high, two feet wide and weighing 7,000 pounds. There’s also 10,000 feet of 10-foot-high chain link fence to prevent debris from crashing cars from flying into the stands, and 1,600 feet of tires stacked five-high to help keep drivers from getting injured in a crash.

“The IndyCar vehicles themselves are open-wheel race cars powered by turbo-charged engines that produce 800 horsepower with top speeds of 370 kmh. The chassis, made by two English companies unless a race team is rich enough to build its own from scratch, cost more than $500,000, and that’s without extras. For your half mill, you get the body, suspension and steering systems, and aerodynamic wings. You don’t get an engine. You don’t even get a dashboard, tires, electronics or turbocharger. You do get a 40-gallon fuel tank, but then the cars only average 1.8 miles per gallon.”

The Vancouver course would become notorious among drivers. It was short, narrow and had tight turns, making it extremely hard to pass.

The 1990 event got off to a tragic start. In the inaugural race September 2, volunteer worker Jean Patrick Hein was killed when struck by the car driven by Willy T. Ribbs. Heir had jumped on the track to push the stalled car of Vancouver driver Ross Bentley in a tight corner known as a chicane. Ribbs didn’t have time to see Hein on the track when he rounded the tight turn.

September “Dr. Peter,” (Dr. Peter William Jepson-Young) began a weekly diary of his AIDS illness on the CBC evening news. “Until his death,” writes Constance Brissenden, “he continued to educate viewers, becoming Canada’s leading HIV/AIDS spokesperson. The documentary of these diaries, The Broadcast Tapes of Dr. Peter, won many awards including an Academy Award nomination.” He died November 15, 1992. The story of his life was told in Affirmation: The AIDS Odyssey of Dr. Peter, by Daniel Gawthrop.

September Designated Schedule A heritage structures were:

• 2967 West 42nd, built in 1915
• The Fee House, at 1119 Broughton, built in 1905. (We’ve also seen 1904; this was the home of the prominent Vancouver architect, Thomas Fee.)

October 16 The District of North Vancouver was granted its coat of arms. It was designed by Robert Watt, the Chief Herald of Canada “working with the Centennial Committee and with comments from District Council.”

“Uniquely among the existing coats of arms in the Region,” Watt wrote, “the shield of the District is highly stylized, almost abstract. The District landscape is symbolized with the snow-capped forested mountains beneath a blue sky and the curving lines of the mountain streams and rivers flowing down to meet the waters of the harbor. The crest is a 19th century sailing ship, representing sea-going commerce and recalling the ships shown on the first corporate seal. The ship flies two flags, the ensign in use by Canadian merchant ships at the time of incorporation in 1891 and a special pennant in the District colors of blue, white and green. The silver bear and deer represent the riches of the District’s natural environment entrusted to citizens for preservation.

“The representation of the Salish salmon in gold honors the First Peoples. The motto is Montes Rivique Nobis Inspirant, ‘The Mountains and Their Streams are our Inspiration.’ It was developed by the writer and translated by Graham L. Anderson.”

October 22 Western Star Trucks Holdings Ltd. was incorporated under that name in Abbotsford. (The company started in 1957 in Cleveland, Ohio). They built heavy-duty trucks for the world market at their facility in Kelowna, and built transit buses in Ontario and New York state. In 2002 they would move their operations to Portland, Oregon.

November 7 The British Columbia Entertainment Hall of Fame began—63 years to the day after the Orpheum Theatre began. More than 100 local entertainers are honored with photographs in the theatre, and plaques on the Granville Street sidewalk. The opening ceremony paid special tribute to the late Ivan Ackery, who was manager of the Orpheum from 1935 to 1969. He was born Ivor Frederick Wilson Ackery in Bristol, England on October 30, 1899. In later years he’d change the Ivor to Ivan because that’s what everybody in Vancouver called him, anyway. A complete roster of the Hall of Fame can be seen here.

November 8 Sam Bass, pharmacist, died in Vancouver, aged 75. He was born April 25, 1915, on a farm near Winnipeg. He was the son of immigrant farmers from the Kiev region of the Ukraine. Sam and his brother Jack both became pharmacists, and brother Paul received a PhD in pharmacology. Sam graduated from U. of Manitoba in 1939. After serving in the Second World War as an RCAF pharmacist, he was en route to California when he changed his mind and settled in Vancouver. In 1945, with a loan, he bought Schoff’s Drug Store at Main and Union and renamed it London Drugs. A pioneer in his field, he created the first modern drug store in B.C. and was the first pharmacy discounter. Bass was a strong supporter of Jewish charities and community affairs. “He took his profit in pennies.”

Today, the London Drugs chain—entirely Canadian-owned—has 63 stores and more than 6,000 employees. They are the sponsors of the 1945 chapter in the forthcoming The History of Metropolitan Vancouver.

November 19 On the occasion of Douglas College’s 20th anniversary, all 18 babies born at Maple Ridge, Burnaby, and Royal Columbian Hospitals today, Douglas Day, received Douglas College entrance scholarships.

November Close to 70 percent of Vancouver’s voters endorsed capital spending for a new library facility, a capital fund of about $36 million.

Also in 1990

We have a hunch that Jack Bell will not be best remembered for the business ventures (including peat-harvesting technology) that made him a millionaire many times over, but for his imaginative philanthropy. UBC gave him an honorary degree this year, said he was “a man whose heart is in the right place.” The Jack Bell Foundation started the Vanpool/Carpool Program to reduce pollution and traffic congestion. He donated $1 million to the construction of the First Nations Longhouse at UBC, gave $4 million toward a research centre and gerontology unit at VGH, gave money to the Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre, etc., etc. He was made a Freeman of the City of Vancouver, and awarded the Order of British Columbia in 1991. Bell was born in 1913 in Montreal.

The Mary Pack Arthritis Society Chair in Rheumatology was established at UBC. It was named for arthritis campaigner Mary Pack, 86, who devoted her life to arthritis and rheumatism care and research. She was a teacher of physically handicapped children for the Vancouver School Board. In 1945, dismayed by lack of services, she started the B.C. Spastic Society which led to the B.C. Division of the Canadian Arthritis and Rheumatism Society. She died May 11, 1992.

The B.C. Professional Pharmacists’ Society, established in 1968, changed its name to the British Columbia Pharmacy Association www.bcpharmacy.ca. In 1990 it was a voluntary association of 1,600 member pharmacists and more than 420 member pharmacies (1,067 members and 158 pharmacies in the Lower Mainland) providing “a unified voice for the concerns of the profession.” The association is distinct from the regulatory body (the College of Pharmacists of B.C.).

Richmond switched from being a municipality to being a city.

Construction began on Cathedral Place and the Canadian Craft Museum. The latter is gone now, but the striking Cathedral Place at 925 West Georgia is still with us, in the space once occupied by the Art Deco Georgia Medical Dental Building. It would open for business in 1991. Architects: Paul Merrick.

Construction began on the Laurel Pavilion at Vancouver Hospital and Health Sciences Centre, 855 West 12th Avenue. It would open in 1992. Architects: Hemingway Nelson.

The Horace G. Barber House at 3846 West 10th Avenue, designed by Ross A. Lort in 1936, was rehabilitated and added to by Robert Lemon.

Construction started on Fraser Pointe, at 3023-43 East Kent Avenue North in Vancouver. You read that curious address correctly. Architects: Howard/Yano. Fraser Pointe was built by VLC Properties, the City’s arm’s-length development wing, to provide rental housing for people with low and moderate incomes. Also starting construction this year, and just to the east of Fraser Pointe, is The Phoenix (architect Hughes Baldwin), which would provide 87 market-priced strata-title suites.

Construction began on the Bob Prittie Metrotown Burnaby Library and Civic Square, at 6100 Willingdon Avenue in Burnaby. James K.M. Cheng Architects. More details when 1991 is added to the site. (Bob Prittie was mayor of Burnaby from 1969 to 1973.)

New buildings at UBC included:

Botanical Gardens Centre (1990) (Architects: Downs Archambault) The $1.95 million Centre became a favorite spot for an increasing number of visitors, some arriving on tour buses. The project was made possible by the generosity of the Hon. David Lam, former Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia, and his wife Marjorie. Of post-and-beam and lumber frame construction, the three domestic-scale buildings were linked by a walkway leading to a scenic Lookout.

Child Study Centre (1990) (Architects: Larry McFarland Architects Ltd.) The focus of activities here was (and is) the study of early childhood development. Parents brought young children into a setting similar to a child-care setting, where the children are the focus of research through observation and other techniques. The Faculty of Education administers the facility.

The Forest Engineering Research Institute of Canada (FERIC) building was constructed at UBC. (Architects: Henry Hawthorne Architect Ltd.) Like the adjacent FORINTEK building, this striking three-storey facility was constructed to illustrate the use of wood in large scale/heavy construction buildings. It included the use of newly-developed wood structural components combined with concrete.

FORINTEK Western Research Facility. (Architects: The Hulbert Group B.C.) This two-storey forestry research facility illustrated the use of wood in large scale/heavy construction buildings. The building was clad with aluminum, faced plywood panels and cedar siding. It was on land leased by UBC to FORINTEK and the Forest Engineering Research Institute of Canada (FERIC).

Vancouver Vocational Institute changed its name. It was now the City Centre campus of Vancouver Community College.

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

Vancouver became the first city in Canada to provide scheduled bus service to people with disabilities. What was then B.C. Transit began to install wheelchair lifts onto its buses. These were on scheduled runs throughout the system. It was the first time wheelchair users could be accommodated on regular buses. (Trolley buses never had them.) Today, the newest trolley buses ordered by TransLink are all low-floor with ramps, and the system will be fully accessible some time in 2007.

In 1990, the total prison inmate population for all of the Lower Mainland’s federal detention facilities was 1,990.

A study showed that Vancouver was now North America’s third largest film production centre, surpassed only by Los Angeles and New York.

Movie historian and reviewer Michael Walsh had this to say about locally made movies released in 1990:

Terminal City Ricochet (director Zale Dalen) Full-volume rock music and a newsboy’s rebellion contribute to the chaos in this vision of urban derangement designed for inner city cult crowds.

The Russia House (director: Fred Schepisi) Though most of this espionage thriller was filmed on actual Russian locations, the key meeting between British and American spymasters (Sean Connery, Roy Scheider) takes place at a safe house on Bowen Island.

Xtro II (director: Harry Bromley-Davenport) An American scientist (-Michael Vincent) battles a hideous, violent thing from another world in an isolated subterranean military research lab.

The Neverending Story II (director: George Miller) In a sequel to the 1984 original a new Bastian (Jonathan Brandis) finds the Antiquarian Bookshop still in business.

Look Who’s Talking Too (1990: Amy Heckerling) Another sequel. With two infants to handle the narration, the young marrieds (Kirstie Alley and John Travolta) experience separation and a reconciliation.

Matinee (director: Richard Martin) When the local movie house books a Halloween horror festival, a Fraser Valley girl (Beatrice Boepple) learns that serial killing runs in her family.

Deep Sleep (director: Patricia Gruben) An unbalanced West Vancouver girl (Megan Follows) and an east side bar musician (Damon D’Oliveira) uncover terrible secrets about U.S.-Asian relations.

Short Time (director: Gregg Champion) Thinking himself terminally ill, a Seattle cop (Dabney Coleman) risks all in the hope of winning death-in-the-line-of-duty insurance benefits for his family.

Bird On A Wire (director: John Badham) A real exercise in illusion, this tale of lovers (Mel Gibson and Goldie Hawn) on the run has Victoria and Lower Mainland locations doubling for six different Eastern U.S. cities.

Narrow Margin (director: Peter Hyams) Hired assassins pursue a U.S. district attorney (Gene Hackman) and a murder witness (Anne Archer) aboard a Via Rail train in a thriller filmed on B.C. rail’s Howe Sound line.

The movie Bethune was released. Directed by Vancouver’s Philip Borsos, and starring Donald Sutherland, Helen Mirren, Helen Shaver and Colm Fiore, this was about Dr. Norman Bethune (1890-1939), who had gone to China in 1938 to provide badly needed medical services to the Chinese, then fighting Japan. Thanks to fervent praise from Mao Tse-tung after Bethune’s death in 1939 he became a widely revered figure in China.

Bard on the Beach began. “It was established,” says its website, “with a mandate to provide Vancouver residents and tourists with affordable, accessible Shakespearean productions of the finest quality. The Festival began as an Equity Co-op, funded primarily by a Canada Council Explorations grant awarded to Artistic Director and Founder, Christopher Gaze.”

The first year’s production was A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Gaze has said he got financing from “my dentist, my insurance man, anyone. We raised $36,000 and cleared $1,300 at the end of the season.”

Bard on the Beach is now a fully professional theatre company, and the productions consistently receive both critical and audience acclaim. “The plays are staged in Vanier Park on Vancouver’s waterfront, in open-ended tents with a spectacular backdrop of mountains, sea and sky . . . Over the years Bard on the Beach attendance has grown significantly from 6,000 patrons in 1990 to nearly 80,000 patrons in 2005.”

Christopher Gaze has made an invaluable contribution to the Vancouver cultural scene.

The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra obtained the services of a new music director, Sergiu Comissiona. His arrival was described as a “musical rebirth” at the VSO. “The band,” wrote music reviewer Ray Chatelin, “is playing better than it has in memory, thanks to Comissiona, who is as exacting in the rehearsal room as he is charming to the public.” Comissiona would lead the orchestra until 2000. He died March 5, 2005 in Oklahoma City.

Barry Ingham took over Ballet British Columbia after Patricia Neary’s departure, but his tenure was tragically brief: 17 months. He would die in 1992 and be succeeded by John Alleyne. (Neary’s reign was brief, too, just 10 months, but she was fired by the Ballet BC board who found her, writes Chris Wood in the Canadian Encyclopedia, “sharp-tongued and demanding.”)

The Pacific Baroque Orchestra was founded this year by a group of westcoast musicians experienced in the performance of classical and baroque music on instruments of the period. Led by violinist Marc Destrubé, the ensemble not only played instrumental concerts, but collaborated with choirs. One of the reasons the Internet has made such an astonishing impact on our lives is its ability to take you there. The Pacific Baroque Orchestra’s website lets you listen in on a rehearsal and see the musicians performing. It’s a bracing and beautiful 60 seconds, filmed by Paul Fremes.

An excerpt from the website: “Recognizing that the orchestra’s core repertoire hails from a time when virtually every concert featured premieres of new works, Artistic Director Marc Destrubé has led the orchestra in workshops and concerts devoted to new music composed for period instruments. Works commissioned from composers Linda Catlin Smith, Peter Hannan, Jocelyn Morlock and Bradshaw Pack have featured prominently in the orchestra’s concert series.”

The Pacific Music Industry Association was incorporated. (It’s called Music BC today.) It is “a non-profit society that supports and promotes the spirit, development and growth of the BC music community provincially, nationally and internationally. Music BC provides education, resources, advocacy, opportunities for funding, networking and a forum for communication.”

A Chinatown building that once held a cache of guns intended for the army of Dr. Sun Yat-Sen burned down this year. The Chinese leader never received the armaments; they were discovered when the building burned. See the article on Dr. Sun in our Archives section.

Among the locally flavored books that appeared in 1990:

It’s Up to You: Women at UBC in the Early Years by Lee Stewart, published by the UBC Academic Women’s Association. There’s a description here from the UBC Press web site. An excerpt: “The book profiles the experience of women at UBC from the founding of the university early in this century until after the Second World War. Stewart argues that campaigns to open the university, to start nursing and home economic programs, to establish the office of dean of women, and to build women’s residences each involved the persistent efforts of women reformers, and each eventually succeeded.”

Collingwood pioneers: memories of a Vancouver district by Barbara Nielsen, published by Collingwood Pioneers.

Robin Ward’s Vancouver by Robin Ward. Excellent drawings of notable local structures and essays on their historical and architectural significance. Harbour Publishing.

Vanishing Vancouver by Michael Kluckner. Published by Whitecap Books. This splendid book used Kluckner’s own affectionate watercolors, along with color and black-and-white photographs, and maps, to look at bygone—or soon to be bygone—Vancouver. 208 pages. It went into two printings, and in 1991 would be the winner of the Duthie Prize and the City of Vancouver Book Prize. “A rare combination of architectural history, social history, contemporary politics, art and nostalgia.”

Evelyn Lau, 20, won the Milton Acorn Memorial 1990 People’s Poetry Award for You Are Not Who You Claim, her first book of poetry.

The third edition of Easy Hiking Around Vancouver by Jean Cousins and Heather Robinson appeared.

Peter Ward won the 1990 Certificate of Merit from the Social Sciences Federation of Canada for White Canada Forever, his study of anti-Asian attitudes and policies in B.C., named as one of the top 20 best books written in English in the Social Sciences during the preceding half century. A UBC history professor, Ward was also the author of 1990’s Courtship, Love and Marriage in Nineteenth-Century Canada.

Coquitlam 100 Years: Reflections of the Past: One Hundred Years of History as Told by the Pioneers Themselves Who Recall Taming the Tree-filled Wilderness, the Warmth of a Growing Community, and the Many Cultures Which Formed What Is Now Coquitlam Published by the District of Coquitlam.

Reflections: one hundred years: a celebration of the District of North Vancouver’s centennial by Chuck Davis. People like John Linn, Emily Patterson, Walter Draycott, Chief Dan George, Chief Capilano Joe, song-writing Bentley C. Hilliam, Alfred Wallace, Captain James van Bramer, Ron Andrews, Karen Magnussen and others are written about. The book was written in three months and shows it.

The Pacific Coast League 1903-1988 by Bill O’Neal. One visitor to Amazon.com’s site had this to say: “Bill O’Neal’s book is well written as it chronicles the history of the Coast League decade by decade. For someone like myself who was exposed to Coast League ball for such a short period of time, Mr. O’Neal’s book fills in a lot of the history that I missed out on. The statistics throughout the book are impressive and in my opinion the most complete of any book I have read on the PCL. One other area of the book that I found to be unique was the section that discusses all of the cities that had PCL franchises. I didn’t realize there were so many. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning more about the history of the PCL and our baseball heritage on the West Coast.”

The Greater Vancouver Appointment Book by Chuck Davis. An idea by PR professional and friend John Keirstead sparked a book series. Each consisted of 52 stories about Vancouver, each story facing a page allowing room to write in the week’s appointments. The stories were taken from Chuck’s Province columns. The success of the first book, published by New Star Books, inspired two sequels. This was the second.

The New Landlords by investigative journalist and teacher Donald Gutstein examined Asian investment in Canadian real estate.

An anonymous donation of $10 million was made to UBC this year, but someone tattled and it was learned the donation came from the Chan brothers, Tom and Caleb.

The December 2004 issue of Canadian Business had a feature on Canada’s “Rich 100.” One of the articles, by Alex Mlynek, was on the Chan brothers, who had arrived here in 1987 “at the height of what was often referred to as the ‘Asian invasion.’ Says Tom, the older of the two: ‘It created quite a shock to the local culture. There were some very uncomfortable locals, which is understandable.’ The backlash that ensued,” Mlynek continues, “was on top of the major adjustments Tom and his wife and kids were prepared for after they chose to leave densely populated Hong Kong for ‘more nature and more space.’ Tom, who was 41 when they arrived, had visited Vancouver in the ’60s and ’70s as a student at the University of California-Berkeley. He returned to the city for Expo 86, a trip that inspired him and his wife to raise their family there. ‘The city is so beautiful, the air is fresh, and we think the people are very friendly, he says.”

The brothers started Burrard International Holdings, a company that develops golf courses and properties. “While they co-own it,” Mlynek writes, “Caleb (the president) is in charge of the business side and Tom handles the family’s charitable foundation. Business has been good: the Chans, who rank 58 on the Rich 100, are worth $615 million.” [Remember, site visitors, this is 16 years ago.]

In 1997 the brothers would finance the building of the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts at UBC.

Burrard International Holdings, by the way, has won awards for its buildings. One example is Eugenia Place, at 1919 Beach Avenue, designed by Henriquez & Partners and winner of a Governor General’s Award for Architecture. The handsomely renovated Burrard Building, headquarters of Chan’s firm, is another example. The Chans are major supporters of the Seventh Day Adventist Church.

Speaking of architect Richard Henriquez, he won a Governor General’s Award of Merit for Architecture this year. Born February 5, 1941 in Anatto Bay, Jamaica, Henriquez’ work is often startling, always distinctive, frequently stunning: it includes the Justice Institute in New Westminister, Eugenia Place (see the Caleb Chan entry above), the restoration of Sinclair Centre in downtown Vancouver (the project that won his company and Toby Russell Buckwell & Partners the 1990 GG’s award), the Capilano College Library and much, much more. There are lots of examples here.

The splendid collection of ceramics donated to the Museum of Anthropology by Dr. Walter Koerner in 1988 was opened to the public. “The Gallery,” says the site, “was an addition to the Museum of Anthropology, accommodating a unique collection of Czech, Slovakian and Bohemian ceramics and tiles, the lifetime work of Dr. Walter Koerner. One feature is a 12th-century oven clad entirely in tiles.

“The 600 pieces of rare European ceramics were collected by Dr. Koerner over almost 80 years, making MOA a unique ceramic resource in Canada. Some of the pieces are considered to be the finest in North America, and the collection as a whole is unique in the world. Now displayed in a new wing, the tranquil Koerner Ceramics Gallery remains one of Vancouver’s best kept secrets.”

The Chris Gage Memorial Award was established through the Bob Smith Scholarship Fund. It was a tribute to the superlatively skilled Gage, a Regina-born jazz pianist and composer who came to Vancouver at age 17 and performed here for two decades. He died in Vancouver in 1964.

In the early 1980s, local Irish Canadians had managed to start an Irish Centre on Prior Street in Strathcona but the centre closed its doors this year.

Anne Macdonald, arts advocate, received the YWCA Woman of Distinction Award for Community Service. See the brief bio of this very accomplished lady in our Hall of Fame.

Hargate, England-born (April 25, 1910) Barney Potts—a local entertainer since the 1930s—released an album titled Barney Potts Live—Just Barely. Potts, 80, was also inducted into the British Columbia Entertainment Hall of Fame this year, for his decades of performing. He led bands in the 1930s in Vancouver nightspots such as Alma Academy, Happyland, Cinderella Ballroom, Quadra Club, Mandarin Gardens, Odyssey Room and The Narrows. He performed in musicals in 1940s, and spent 12 years with Theatre Under the Stars. Accompanied by his wife, singer Thora Anders (b. Sept. 12, 1913, Victoria), he played radio and TV (such as a Juliette special with Robert Goulet), nightclubs and concert halls.

The sale of houses in Vancouver dropped an astonishing 40 per cent from the previous year, would rebound sharply in 1991.

Jon Steeves, a Vancouver computer consultant, had devised a word game he called MooT (as in “a moot question,” because the answers can often be debated) back in 1987. His friends liked it so much he began to market and sell it this year. It’s still selling more than 16 years later. To learn more about this excellent, challenging, and sometimes very funny, game go here.

A sample MooT question: Its name was coined by combining the French words for velvet and hook. What synthetic material is it?

Comment: Fascinated by the microstructure of burs—they have hook-like snags that can attach to passing objects—Swiss engineer George de Mestral invented a synthetic hook-and-eye material. He named it velours croché, hooked velvet, which eventually was shortened to “velcro”.

Another sample: According to the Concise Oxford Dictionary, its name probably derives from the Sanskrit word for the number five. What type of drink is it?

Comment: The word “punch” probably derives from the Sanskrit panca, “five,” as the drink properly had five ingredients—similarly, the Punjab is the land of the five rivers

Jon has written about how MooT was developed. Go here.

Roberta “Bobbie” Steen, a tireless promoter of B.C. and national sporting opportunities for women, became founding chair and executive director of Promotion Plus, the B.C. organization for girls and women in sport and physical activity.

Canada Wide Magazines acquired control this year of the monthly magazine BC Business, launched by Joe Martin in 1972.

Publications launched this year included:

The Globe and Mail‘s urbane glossy magazine West. It would be cited as Western Magazine of the Year in 1991, and would die in 1992.

Canada Japan Business Journal, with text in English and Japanese, this publication appeared six times a year.

Canadian Mill Product News Published 69 times a year by Baum International Media Ltd.

GRC News A semi-annual free publication from SFU’s Gerontology Research Centre. It published news about the Centre and senior citizens in BC.

Geist: the Canadian Magazine of Ideas and Culture Published five times a year by the Geist Foundation, it included commentaries on literature, society, and the arts.

Independent Senior Published monthly, with articles of interest for seniors 55 and over.

Logger A bi-monthly trade publication for the logging industry.

Sacred Fire A poetry magazine published four times a year.

The Vancouver Board of Trade launched the federal Debt Clock. It made news right across the country. The clock was a massive 360-kilogram, 15-by-10-foot computerized calculator that tracked the rise in federal debt. The clock inspired the Canadian Taxpayers Association to create similar clocks, with faces for the provinces of B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ontario.

The clock was designed by the Vancouver architectural firm Matsuzaki, Wright. It travelled the nation and was even rented and brought to Ottawa by politicians. It was also located in Vancouver’s Seabus Terminal and at the Hongkong Bank of Canada.

The Vancouver Board of Trade launched another initiative this year: its Business and the Arts Awards, established to carry on the successful work initiated by the Vancouver Society for Business and the Arts. “The objective of the Awards is to encourage the corporate sector’s involvement with the arts and to recognize those businesses that through financial aid, sponsorships, employee involvement and other corporate services are committed to the arts in Vancouver.”

Winner this first year in the category Innovation was Alcan Smelters & Chemicals Limited. Winner for Sustained Support—Major Corporation was Richmond Savings Credit Union and winner for Small Business was Thomas Hobbs Florist.

1990 marked the beginning of a surge in downtown construction. On average, in the first three years of the 1990s, a major new office building went up in downtown Vancouver every 84 days. Then the pace would slow: in 1993 there would be just one new tower (at 111 Dunsmuir), and in 1994 and 1995 there would be none at all.

Larco Investments purchased Park Royal shopping centre this year and gave it a $20 million facelift, including new shops, a fashion galleria and marketplace.

Chanel opened a Vancouver location. Normand Pitre, president of Chanel Canada, called Vancouver “the Canadian city of the future.”

In a sign of the decline of the fishing industry the Campbell Avenue fisherman’s wharf to the east of the B.C. Sugar Refinery closed down.

By 1990 BC Rail’s total length of track was 1,387 miles (2,232 km), making it the third largest railway in Canada.

A ban was imposed on leaded gasoline, but according to B.C. Environment Ministry scientists, computer models of ozone generation (by vehicles, waste burning, natural gas processing and the action of hot sunshine) indicate the quality of our air will change very little during the first decade of the 21st century, i.e., to 2010.

The City of Vancouver began a composting program. They supplied residents with subsidized compost bins so organic waste (otherwise destined for landfills) could be recycled into a usable soil conditioner. Within five years it had distributed more than 15,000 compost bins (at $25 each) to householders, diverting about 3,800 tonnes of organic material annually.

The Blue Box recycling system was adopted in Surrey.

The GVRD and its member municipalities switched to a policy of buying only recycled motor oil. A study showed that an estimated five million litres of waste oil was disposed of annually by “do-it-yourselfers” in Greater Vancouver.

Vancouver resumed control of Vancouver International Airport. It would be run by a locally-appointed Vancouver International Airport Authority that was prepared to put $750 million into the facility—half-a-billion more than Transport Canada had planned to spend. “The authority,” Sean Rossiter wrote in The Greater Vancouver Book, “saw the airport expansion not as a limitless drain on its funds, but as a profitable front door to Canada from the Pacific Rim.”

Arrivals and departures at the airport in 1990 totaled 9,544,300. That was an increase from 1989’s 9,143,850, but 1991 would show a dip to 8,996,140.

Norsal, one of the more celebrated boats in BC’s history, sank in Hecate Strait. She was built by Menchions’ Coal Harbour shipyard in 1922 for use by the Powell River Company executives, sold in 1946 to the J. Gordon Gibson lumbering family. Gibson changed her name in 1973 to Maui Lu prior to his notable trip to the Hawaiian Islands. Norsal was sold in 1977 and operated as a coastal charter vessel until her sinking. (She was named for Norman and Sally Lang, the children of Norman Lang of the Powell River Co.)

Weyerhaeuser Canada planted its 50 millionth seedling in B.C.

A report by the Workers’ Compensation Board showed that in 1990 BC had 6.7 injuries per 100 person-years of work. By 1995 that figure would be lowered to 5.3.

The city purchased the old Children’s Hospital in Marpole and began its restoration as a residence for seniors.

According to the federal census of 1991, the average household income in Shaughnessy Heights declined by 10 per cent between 1980 and 1990 from $112,106 to $102,933. (During the same period, average Vancouver household incomes rose by 4.5 per cent.)

Vancouver began to adopt policies this year to encourage artwork in publicly accessible spaces. The Public Art Program provides opportunities for people to experience art in everyday life and for artists and communities to participate in the design, look and feel of the city. Check out this site.

Among the art works unveiled locally in 1990:

Placed Upon the Horizon (Casting Shadows) was placed at 750 Hornby. The artist was Lawrence Weiner, who created 35-cm high yellow-cedar letters, 14′ x 42′. Weiner, an American artist whose work is based on the use of written language as object, created this installation specifically for the Vancouver Art Gallery. It was on the upper facade of the gallery’s south side.

Untitled painting by Joe Plaskett in the lobby at 888 Dunsmuir.

Mural at the Four Sisters Housing Co-op on the eastern edge of Gastown, painted by Richard Tetrault. (Tetrault also created the Street Performance mural at the Firehall Arts Centre in 1987, and Summer City Street mural at Carnegie Community Centre in 1980.)

Kamui Mintara—Playground of the Gods In Burnaby Mountain Park Naburi Toko and Shusei Toko, father and son of Ainu descent (Japan’s aboriginal people), created this wooden installation. It commemorates 25 years of good will between Burnaby and its sister city Kushiro, and refers to the Ainu creation myth.

Westwood Motorsport Park, which had opened in Coquitlam in July 1959—it was at the time the only European-style race track in Canada—closed.

Mitz Nozaki, who owned the Commodore Bowling Lanes, retired this year and sold the lanes to Al Rose.

The Arctic Canada Pavilion was opened at the Vancouver Aquarium. It included a two-million-litre beluga whale pool and the Jean MacMillan Southam Arctic Gallery examining the beluga habitat. The Gallery featured sounds of Arctic marine mammals.

1,200 independent truckers protesting their wages blocked access to the border for freight trucks.

Barnston Island dairy farmers see a water supply project fail because costs for water supplied from the Indian Reserve hook-up are more than the farmers will pay.