Lawrie, Thomas B. – born on February 18, 1920 in Calgary Alberta passed away peacefully on January 14, 2010 in Victoria, B.C. at the dawn of his 90th Birthday. Thomas is survived by his loving sister, Margaret Dancer; brother-in-law, Donald Dancer of Santa Barbara, California; his niece, Marion Dancer of Santa Clarita, California; his niece, Sandy Dancer; great nieces, Julie, Kelly, and Jenna Gamba of Aix-en-Provence, France, and his second cousin, Geoffrey Inverarity of Vancouver. After returning from the war, Tom went back to his job at Barber Ellis of Canada, Ltd., Canada’s largest stationary manufacturer, where he worked his way up to Branch Manager in Regina, Saskatchewan, then transferred to Victoria in 1978 to head up their west coast operations. Tom retired from the Company in 1985. As a Bell Ringer and active member of Rotary for over 55 years, Tom was rewarded with Rotary’s song service reward in 2000, on the occasion of his 80th Birthday. Tom was an avid golfer and was a member of the Glen Meadows Golf club where he continued playing well into his 80’s.
A service will be held at MCCALL BROS. FAMILY CHAPEL, Johnson and Vancouver Streets on Wednesday, January 20th at 11:00 am with Reverend D. Hatfield officiating.
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Douglas Williamson
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Brian Exton Dear Margaret and family,
I have just read in the Calgary Herald of Tom’s passing and want to express my sincere sympathy. I will always cherish the memories of visits my late wife Marg and I had with Tom in Victoria. During his last years he courageously lived with cancer and even when he did not feel up to seeing us we had great chats by phone. I hope that you are managing all right Margaret.Love from Brian
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Donald Ball I joined Barber-Ellis in Calgary shortly after Tom was transferred to Regina as Branch Manager. As a new salesman I remember talk about Tom and felt often that I was walking in the “shoes of the fisherman.” Over about 35 years I too moved about with various promotions and was often in Tom’s company at B-E functions. I was the last President of Barber-Ellis Fine Papers; it was sold to American interests in the early 90’s shortly after my retirement. I was surprised and saddened to learn of Tom’s passing. He was always a gentleman and well received by customers and fellow workers. My wife, Doreen and I moved to Victoria 5 years ago and had no knowledge that Tom was resident here too!
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Peter Norman My heart and prayers go out to Tom’s family at this time.
Many of Tom’s contemporaries in Rotary have passed on before him. I personally kept in touch with occassional phone calls; far too occasional I now realise. His 55 years in Rotary were indicative of his sense of community and of service. He is even now a fully paid up member and as such is participating in our current drive to fund Shelter boxes for Haiti.
At our lunch meeting on Thursday January 14th we quite coincidentally talked of members who are shut in and Tom was mentioned by name. He was with us to the end. Tom will be remembered at our next lunch, for a further year in our roster and at our district wind up in June where deceased members are named and remembered.
I would like to express my sympathy to the family of Thomas. My late mother, Phyllis Williamson (nee Lawrie) was a cousin of Thomas, as was my late aunt Sheila Beattie Lawrie of Rosetta Road, Peebles. I had been researching the family history of Thomas’s father Thomas Boyd Lawrie and came across the obituary by chance.