Ray Williston Obituary

Sandra,Jo,Hubert,Dianne,Joe and Marla,
I wish you all peace and hope at this time of Ray, an incomparable man's, loss.My friendship with Ray developed through the Skyline Hikers of the Can. Rockies organization. Luckily, I was a younger member and in decent shape in order to keep up with Ray (at 80 yr.s+) on all of the 'interesting' tough hikes@ the time. Eileen and I watched over each other @ Sunset Pass in 1993, the year when I was 6 mo. pregnant w/ my first child, Clare, and what would be Eileen's last year hiking.
Ray and I were kindred spirits on another level. I continue to be camp musician and he was quite the storyteller , singer and performer. I will always remember him as the spirit of encouragement, strength and laughter.

Sandra, Jo, Hubert, Dianne, Joe, and Marla,

My thoughts (in Victoria) are with you at this time. Ray was a very special person and I am honoured to have met him.

Take care,
Marlene Bergstrom
Alumni Services, University of Victoria

When I told my father (Fred Sharpe, age 91) about the passing of Ray he was saddened but then began to remember some of the experiences they had. Dad was a teacher in Prince George and drove Ray to Prince George on his very first trip to town. It was a rugged drive but Ray was fine until dad decided to make his own road through the trees rather than wait for graders and road repairs to be done. Ray later told dad that he thought they'd never see Prince George and wondered just what had he got himself into!
Another time that makes dad chuckle is when they were on their way into school for an after school meeting. A student came running through the door and down the stairs, much against the "no running" rules. Ray stopped him, told him to "go back to the top and walk down the stairs then keep on going". Two hours later when they came out of the meeting the very weary student was still going up and down the stairs. He had followed the "keep on going" literally! Over the years whenever tales of Prince George were told, stories of Ray were always included. Dad has fond memories of your family and sends his regards.
Lynne & twin brother Herb send condolences as well.

Dear Sandra, Diane and Hubert, my friend Dena, brought your dad's passing to my attention a couple of days ago. What a life he gave to British Columbians. My heart goes out to you in this time. I remember well the hospitality of your family and parents back in the good old days when we were young. We lost Dad last December. What a ripe old age these two fine gentlemen lived to. If you ever pass through Williams Lake, look me up in the phone book and pay us a visit.
Kris Andrews.

May God bless you and your family in this time of sorrow. We Lived across the street on the Bluff in Gibsons from 1992-1996.
Keith Frampton and Lorraine Arthur

My Aunt and Uncle, Maurice and Eleanor Foster[both deceased]lived on Ascot road, across the street from the Willistons, and I still recall their comments as to the kind friend and family "across the way"

Ray Williston was the most effective and innovative Resources Minister British Columbia ever had. His legacy is acknowledged in Williston Lake which is the reservoir for the W.A.C. Bennett Dam and the Shrum Generating Station. With uncommon foresight, Ray urged the simultaneous development of Site C but, sadly in hindsight, was overridden by his otherwise courageous but suddenly cautious colleagues - true greatness sometimes, indeed, goes unrecognized.

In 1967 there were 600 odd entities (loggers, sawmillers, even lawyers) involved in the Interior Forest industry but the BC Government foresters had no idea what each of those 600 was doing. Ray ordered that each one report the amount of timber they had processed in the previous year and that became their Quota, repeat Quota, which established the basis for forest tenures to this day. David Ainsworth of 100 Mile House was in the process of rebuilding his sawmill and reported no utilization for the year requested and therefore received no Quota; a cunning Ray told him he could have Lodgepole Pine, a weed tree at the time, and that was the start of the utilization of a whole new major forest industry resource. And of the original 600, Ainsworth Lumber, still a brilliantly, innovative Ainsworth family run company, is one of the half dozen present day consolidated survivors in the Interior.

At a dinner meeting at Maxim's Restaurant in Tokyo in the Spring of 1968 between Ray, me and Hampton Lumber Mills (Chuck Hampton of Boston Bar and John Hampton of Portland Oregon) Chuck asked Ray for more quota at less stumpage cost and John urged a perplexed Ray to raise stumpage cost, restrict quota and increase log export; that was the beginning of the intractable Softwood Lumber dispute that has persisted for forty years.

And so it went, and so it goes with Ray Williston with whom I was privileged to know and to work as a consultant for all too short a time.

Norman Fawkes, P.Eng.