Wilf Wakely, most commonly pronounced "Wirofu Waekuri" in his beloved and enchanting Japan, died peacefully in Tokyo on February 2, 2021 after a two year battle with brain cancer.
The loss of this foremost advocate of closer and more harmonious Canada-Japan relations brought much sorrow and grief to literally countless people, on both sides of the Pacific and across the globe, whose lives, in one way or another, had been truly enriched by him in his many roles and endeavours. Wilf was at times a comedian, a businessman, a bureaucrat, a diplomat, a community leader and a mentor, and much has been said and published elsewhere on that score. His achievements of high office in commerce and government and as a member of numerous board and trade commissions included postings with the Department of External Affairs, appointment as British Columbia's Trade and Investment Commissioner in Kobe, and appointment as president and chair of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Japan.
Wilf's entrepreneurial skills were honed at an early age. As a grade 10 boy at St. George's, he bought day-old pastries from a delicatessen shop on Dunbar St. on his way to school, and then at morning break he sold the pastries to the other boys. There would be quite a crowd around his locker. We understand that the headmaster was not impressed.
Wilfred Cowan Wakely was also a lawyer.
His appearance at UBC law school in 1977 as "a man with a plan" was like that of some exotic creature come among us. A YMCA exchange visit to Japan in 1965 when he was 15 years old had led, after his completion of high school in Vancouver, to a career as a highly popular commercial front-man and comedian on Japanese television and ambassador positions at Expos in Osaka and Okinawa—rare antecedents indeed, even for the kaleidoscope of entrants to first-year law.
Read the complete article in the November 2021 issue of The Advocate.