2016 was a year the world lost some of its most beloved artists. David Bowie, Prince, Alan Rickman, Leonard Cohen and Royal City, things weren’t any brighter.
New Westminster lost a number of local do-gooders and all around great people. Here’s a sampling:
Peter Corbeil, Queens Park Meat Market
After 18 years with a cleaver, Peter Corbeil, owner of Queens Park Meat Market called it quits in June. He told the Record he wanted a change and was heading east for a new life.
Corbeil died before his new life could begin. Two months after his retirement, the Record learned the 53-year-old had passed away. His wife Cathy told us he’d died of natural causes on Aug. 2.
He was remembered by many, including Harry Toor, owner of the Castle Neighbourhood Grill.
“Pete was an amazing guy with a big heart. I can’t say enough about him. We held fundraisers at the castle, and Pete won two or three of them and donated all the money back to the charity,” said Toor. “Not only was he a patron, he was a friend as well.”
Frank Froebel, businessman
In April, New Westminster lost a longtime business person.
Frank Froebel died suddenly of a heart attack on April 19. He was a member of the Tourism New Westminster board of directors and before that he was the manager of the Paddlewheeller Riverboat Tours.
“Frank was full of life (and comments!) and always had a way of making us laugh, no matter what the occasion was,” said Tej Kainth, executive director of Tourism New West. “He was an invaluable contributor to Tourism New Westminster and will truly be missed by the many people who had the pleasure of knowing him.”
Anita Hagen, former school trustee and MLA
Former New Westminster school trustee and MLA Anita Hagen died of cancer June 5 in Vancouver.
Hagen began her political life advocating for teaching assistants in classrooms. In 1976, she was elected to the New Westminster school board, a position she held until 1986 when she won the city’s MLA seat where she served one term in Opposition and one term in government. She was deputy premier, minister of advanced education, minister of multiculturalism and human rights and secretary of the cabinet.
Hagen, 84, retired from politics in 1996 but remained active in the community, volunteering for the food bank and chairing the committee that raised funds to establish Monarch Place, the city’s first transition house for women and children fleeing violence.
In 1999, Hagen was named New Westminster’s Citizen of the Year.
Dorothy Beach, environmentalist
In January, famed environmentalist Dorothy Beach passed away.
The 102-year-old had lived almost her entire life in the Royal City, overlooking the Fraser River, but it was the environment as a whole that was her true passion. Beach’s list of accomplishments was long and included the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee medal, the Harold Steves and Farmland Defence League’s award for lifetime dedication to the preservation of farmland, and a nomination for Citizen of the Year in 2008. (She was runner-up that year to Coun. Chuck Puchmayr.)
“She was an amazing person and an amazing environmentalist. Very cutting edge in spearheading the environmental movement in New Westminster,” Puchmayr told the Record.
Among her many pursuits, Beach advocated for preservation of agricultural land, creating awareness about issues related to the sustainability of the Fraser River and railing against Agriculture Canada’s plan in the mid-1990s to spray herbicides on 20 acres in Sapperton to kill gypsy moths, ultimately convincing the federal government to trap the insects.
Other folks we lost include former reporter and beloved gardening columnist AnneMarrison; former Salmonbellie MacTyler; and New Westminster junior Salmonbellies governor Harry Ferguson.
