June 9, 2021
June 9, 2021
I have known Neill since Sept.1975 when he hired me to work in the marketing dept of Foremost Industries, he was the Sales Manager at the time. Over the years I worked with Neill at a number of different companies and he was really the only “boss” I have ever known. We became friends and ultimately Neill was the primary influencer of my adult life, aside from my wife.
We went on countless adventures together, everything from looking for dinosaur bones, lost golf balls, fishing, sea kayaking to 4wd trips in Utah. And although there was never a consensus on the political life of the day, he was great companion. Many memorable hours were spent travelling in the car, boat or sitting around the campfire.
Neill purchased a folding sea kayak and we decided to take it out the islands west of Bella Bella for a 10 day trip, this entailed driving to Bell Coola, renting a Beaver sea plane and flying to Bella Bella. Where we assembled the kayak, stuffed the thing to the gills and paddled off for our 10 day trip. I think over the course of our 10 days we saw a total of 3 fishing boats at a distance but no other people so it was remote.
On the morning of the second day I saw Neill walking down the beach back to camp with something that looking like a wet white football in his hand, and I asked what’s that? He said that he had dropped our one roll of toilet paper in the water as he was tending to his morning ablutions. Neill’s comment was “it will dry out”. He never failed to remind me over the years of the utter look of horror on my face as the impact of what he was saying struck home.
A couple of days later in the trip he managed to redeem himself. We had paddled into a bay, beached the kayak and as we always did, set off to have a look around. When we returned to the beach the boat was gone, the tide had floated it well out into the bay. If it had fallen to me, we might still be there, but Neill sprinted down the beach, dove into the water and retrieved the departing kayak. He was a great swimmer and a man of action, he will be missed.
We went on countless adventures together, everything from looking for dinosaur bones, lost golf balls, fishing, sea kayaking to 4wd trips in Utah. And although there was never a consensus on the political life of the day, he was great companion. Many memorable hours were spent travelling in the car, boat or sitting around the campfire.
Neill purchased a folding sea kayak and we decided to take it out the islands west of Bella Bella for a 10 day trip, this entailed driving to Bell Coola, renting a Beaver sea plane and flying to Bella Bella. Where we assembled the kayak, stuffed the thing to the gills and paddled off for our 10 day trip. I think over the course of our 10 days we saw a total of 3 fishing boats at a distance but no other people so it was remote.
On the morning of the second day I saw Neill walking down the beach back to camp with something that looking like a wet white football in his hand, and I asked what’s that? He said that he had dropped our one roll of toilet paper in the water as he was tending to his morning ablutions. Neill’s comment was “it will dry out”. He never failed to remind me over the years of the utter look of horror on my face as the impact of what he was saying struck home.
A couple of days later in the trip he managed to redeem himself. We had paddled into a bay, beached the kayak and as we always did, set off to have a look around. When we returned to the beach the boat was gone, the tide had floated it well out into the bay. If it had fallen to me, we might still be there, but Neill sprinted down the beach, dove into the water and retrieved the departing kayak. He was a great swimmer and a man of action, he will be missed.
