Profiles

On November 14, 1993, the kindly face that graces the front cover of this edition of the Advocate completed a quarter of a century of useful service on the Court of Appeal of British Columbia. He joins a select group of only five Justices of Appeal who have served that long …

The luxury setting is spartan yet sensual, with none of the almost mandatory indiscretions of taste one commonly finds in business offices (polished floors, thick carpets, and substantial furniture awaiting the arrival of the stars of Dallas or Dynasty). The place is the 15th floor executive offices of Westcoast Transmission and John Anderson, President and Chief Executive Officer, comfortably dominates his surroundings. His windows command an exhilarating view of Vancouver's mountain-rimmed harbour; he can look down to the moorage of his 34 ft.

Born in Kamloops in 1923, David R. Williams was a student during the earliest years of UBC Law, at a time when the classes were still conducted in repurposed army huts from the Second World War. After graduating in 1949, Williams practised civil and criminal litigation in Duncan.

Brian was born in Saskatoon in January 1923, the second of four brothers. Their father was a professor of economics and for a time had George R Curtis (later the first dean of UBC law school) as a student. One of Brian's brothers was Fred Carrothers. Fred was at various times dean of law at Ottawa and Western, president at the University of Calgary, and a long-time member of the Faculty of Law at UBC…

Robert Duncan Ross remembers two things from his undergraduate studies at the University of British Columbia - playing rugby and compulsory military drills required of all men his age during the Second World War. He continued schooling at UBC, graduating from law school in 1949. He left Vancouver half-way through articling to road trip with a friend to Florida, where they found a berth on a sailing vessel to adventure around the Caribbean for half a year.

Michelangelo (Mike) Provenzano died on October 19, 2015 aged 93. Born in Cranbrook, the third of four children of Italian immigrants, Mike and his siblings were raised by their mother after their father's suicide when Mike was a young boy. In high school, he played basketball and was the editor of the school yearbook. He graduated early during the Second World War and enlisted, becoming a flight instructor…

“I was born in a tar paper shack in Saskatchewan called Piapot, where Buff Sainte-Marie is from. My parents moved from Vancouver to get free land. It was the biggest mistake they made. They were there for about five years – that’s where I was born – and then they came back to Vancouver" ...

Though Don chose his priorities well, retiring from active practice in 1986 to spend time with his one true love and lifetime partner, Enid, he remained in touch with many of his classmates and colleagues, continued to participate in various functions with Boughton (formerly Boughton Peterson Yang Anderson), the firm which he managed and led for 20-plus years, and always found time to connect with colleagues…

“A life spent loving … is a life spent well.”

Of the some 130 members of the class of 1949, four were women: Joan Hall, Virigina Galloway, Helen McCoy and Valerie Manning. Valerie Taggart (née Manning) was born in 1926 in Cranbrook, and into a family with strong legal ties – one of her family members had articled with Sir John A. MacDonald. In 1934 her older brother decided to attend UBC, and the family came to the Coast with him and settled in West Point Grey.

In 1948, Dr. Malcolm MacIntyre, a Harvard graduate, joined the UBC Faculty of Law. He was well-loved and greatly respected by his students. Dean George Curtis would later describe Dr. MacIntyre as the critical nexus between students and the faculty. 

“Seventy-eight of us rose from the ash cans of war—76 men and two women—and descended on the campus looking for the law school,” McKenzie recalls. “It existed only in the abstract, as there was no building. We found it embodied in the person of Dean George Curtis.” With two years of Arts courses at Victoria College and an honours degree in English and Philosophy from UBC, McKenzie had joined the Army and was posted to Europe.

When David Tupper takes office as Treasurer of The Law Society of British Columbia in January, 1987, he will be following in the footsteps of his father, Reginald Hibbert Tupper, Q.C. who was Treasurer for two years from 1949 to 1951, and his grandfather, Sir Charles Hibbert Tupper, Q.C., who was Treasurer in the nineteen twenties. David's great-grandfather, also Sir Charles Tupper, being a physician rather than a lawyer, was not eligible to be Treasurer and so contented himself by serving as a Founder of Confederation and as Prime Minister of Canada…

Edward Thomas Cantell, QC (1918 – 2007) was always very proud of his West Coast roots. Born in New Westminster, BC, Mr. Cantell naturally entered UBC after graduating high school. However, the young man’s studies were interrupted by World War II, whereupon he enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force, trained as a navigator and completed numerous tours of duty over Europe. Upon his safe return, Mr. Cantell applied and was admitted into the newly created Faculty of Law at UBC.

Gordon Martin graduated as a member of the first class of the law school at UBC, completed his articles and appeared to fulfill all of the requirements for admission to the bar of British Columbia. His application was controversially rejected by the Law Society of British Columbia “based on the finding that [he was] a communist and an adherent to and a supporter of communist doctrines and teachings..." This ostensibly violated the requirement of being "a person of good repute within the meaning of the Legal Professions Act, R.S.B.C. 1936, c. 149".

Robert Delorme Plommer grew up in Vancouver, attended Magee high school and fell in love with golf as a junior at the old Shaughnessy Golf Club. While he was attending UBC, the Second World War broke out. After Germany attacked Russia in July 1941, Bob, at 19, decided that he had better enlist because the war might end before his draft number came up. He joined the air force where he became a navigator. He completed 27 bombing missions over Germany and Occupied France with RCAF 432 Squadron under Bomber Command.

UBC alumnus Douglas McK. Brown was a true son of British Columbia having been born, educated and practiced here. He cared passionately about this place and his vocation. Brown’s profound respect for the courts was exceeded only by his higher regard for the profession.

Brown was born in Vancouver in 1912 and was educated at UBC (Bachelor of Arts, 1933) and Cambridge. At UBC he was a keen rugby player and a member of the Campus Players Club where he developed his talent for oratory which many felt directed him towards the profession of law.

Robert William Bonner, Q.C., B.A., L.L.B., C.D., a native son of Vancouver, British Columbia, has distinguished himself in a varied and interesting career. His early education took place at Hastings School, Templeton Junior High School and he later attended Britannia High School and the University of British Columbia. While at the University, he became an accomplished debater and won the McGown cup, returning it to the University after a lapse of many years ... 

“I was born in 1922, when you had to have cranks to start the cars - some of us have remained cranky ever since. I was born in Saskatchewan in a snow storm ... My father was a general manager there. He remained in the prairies until about 1925. Immediately prior to his departure from Saskatchewan, he was involved in the bank hold up," begins Blair Baillie ...