Darryl William Rhoades

Darryl was born in Calgary to proud parents Roger and Vivian (nee Baker) Rhoades. He is survived by older brother Barry (Alanna) and younger sister Sharon (Don). He was predeceased by his wife Barbara (nee Fishler) and older sister Gayle (Ivan) Garbe. His grandparents were Friend and Amy (nee Gay) Rhoades and Walter and Carolyn (nee Bolton) Baker.

As a youngster, Darryl’s playground was the great outdoors. Activities included: adventures in the coulee, finding golf balls on Shaganappi Golf Course to finance hamburgers and floats, snaring gophers, eating wild saskatoons, playing hockey, learning to play golf, and biking everywhere. There were only two rules, behave and be home for dinner.

Roger and Vivian both grew up on homesteads in Alberta and visiting grandparents on the farms was always a summer highlight for the family. No electricity only kerosene lamps, no running water only well water, no tractor only a team, no refrigerator only ice from the bunker. But the gardens were bountiful and wild strawberries and blueberries flourished. Home made ice cream was a suppertime treat. Everyone was happy and active. Except one moment of crisis did occur. Darryl and a cousin found the 22 shorts and were experimenting by placing a 22 shell on a rock and then throwing another good-sized rock at the shell. Luckily, when the shell went off, Darryl only lost a bit of his eyebrow and the casing did not damage his eye.

In the early 1950’s, a pilot friend took kids from the neighborhood on a flight in his company’s new Otter. It was the first airplane flight for all the kids and turned out to be a defining moment for two of them. Alan went on to become a commercial airline Captain flying 747’s all over the world. Darryl obtained his private pilot’s licence in 1989 and made a number of flying vacations across Canada and through the States. Darryl took delight in telling the story about landing on an old dirt airstrip in Alberta. The field was listed, had a wind sock, and on first pass looked OK. It turned out to be an alfalfa field and scrubbing green from the wheel fenders took several hours.

Roger loved fishing, hunting, and camping in the foothills and took the family on regular trips and vacations to his favorite spots including the Bow and Elbow Rivers, Bears Paw Dam, Banff, Radium and Fairmont Hot Springs, Highwood River, Columbia River, Invermere, Creston, Cranbrook. In December 2025, Darryl and Barry re-discovered a large box of black and white negatives that Roger took in those days. They had a great collaboration digitizing about 1,000 negatives, inverting them, and optimizing them with Photo Shop. This project stimulated a lot of fond memories.

In 1955, Roger was transferred to Vancouver as Service Manager for Canadian General Electric. The family settled in Kerrisdale where good schools and UBC were nearby. The neighborhood was full of like aged kids who became lifelong friends. Darryl excelled at math, played competitive basketball, and honed his golfing skills as a Junior Member at Marine Drive Golf Club, where his summer job was laying irrigation pipes and watering the fairways at night. At UBC, he explored physics and chemistry, enjoyed the Varsity Outdoors Club, and then caught fire graduating with an Honors Math BA. In the summer, during the UBC years, Darryl worked as a sleeping car Porter on CPR’s Canadian and Dominion trains between Vancouver and Winnipeg. He always looked forward to a silver service meal in the dining car before it opened to passengers.

After graduation, Darryl married Barbara Fishler whom he had met in a class. They spent a short time in Peterborough and then moved to Ottawa where Darryl joined Statistics Canada and Barbara began teaching elementary school. Darryl joined Rivermead Golf Club where he recorded an albatross 2 on the par 5 #1 hole. One of Darryl’s first tasks at Statistics Canada was to help in the transition of their records from large leatherbound hand written ledgers to the binary digital world. With assistance from Statistics Canada, Darryl enrolled in post-graduate studies at the University of Michigan and in 1974 obtained a certificate for Candidacy in Philosophy Economics. Travel was always part of their lives and included Ecuador, Galapagos, Hawaii, Peru, China, Thailand, St Petersburg, and most European countries. In 1999, after 35 years, Darryl retired from Statistics Canada as Director Industry Measures and Analysis Division.

But then the sun came up and brought a new ingredient. As Darryl was preparing to retire, an opportunity to work for the United Nations in Geneva crossed his desk. It was right up his alley and he decided to pursue it. After months of interviews and due diligence, he was chosen for the job and obtained a three-year contract. They located in France near Geneva and this became their base for numerous European travel adventures. Darryl’s contract was extended for three more years and in 2006 they returned to Canada.

They located in Victoria and Darryl dove back into golf as a member at the Royal Colwood Golf Club where he was team leader of Wilbur, the Seniors group, for 10 years. RCGC was a second home for Darryl and cherished all the friendships and discussions as much and more than the golf. He enjoyed working with his hands, undertook a number of renovations to their new house, and in addition to landscape duties, kept a sizable garden area.

In 2024, Barbara passed and Darryl’s hip and heart problems increasingly limited his physical activities. He never complained and always had a positive outlook. His great escape in later years was the study of special relativity, Maxwell’s equations, physics of the atom and electromagnetism, and cosmology. He became good friends with ChatGPT and was ever amazed at its’ workings and ability to provide cogent, well-organized answers in a few seconds.

Darryl lived a full, active, and adventurous life. Now, suddenly and unexpectedly, he is at rest and knows the secret of life. Well done … very well done.

Condolences may be offered to the family below.

McCall Gardens
www.mccallgardens.com

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