For Roger Colwill

I had only briefly met Roger the odd time when he was dropping off some contract work for Richard. He was doing watercolours of old houses in Victoria and suggested Richard commission a painting from him to do our house as a Christmas present. We were thrilled with the painting and the thoughtfulness of Richard. We learned he had a stroke not long after doing this painting but Richard said while he couldn't do the delicate watercolours he had been doing he changed his style and still kept painting. He seemed like a pretty amazing person and I've included a photo of the painting of our house here and part of a story that appeeared in the Times-Colonist today.



11 x 14 watercolour on paper 1995
Artist: Roger Colwill

Some excerpts from Jim Gibson's column in the TC:

"Any time you spent with him, you came away feeling a better person," says McDonald, putting this down to Roger's "incredible spirit."

When McDonald and his family still lived in Victoria, the two "wannabe" artists were sketching partners. They also played tennis twice weekly until a stroke a decade ago restricted Roger's left side. That didn't stop him from later joining McDonald on his jogs. He rode along on the first of the electric recumbent bikes he used when no longer able to drive.

Roger spent more than three months in hospital recovering from his stroke....

Roger, according to Barbara, was always asking people, "What's your biggest challenge. And how can I help?" He was barely three days in hospital after his stroke when he tapped people to help the man in the next bed with his problems.

"Good news? Bad news? Who knows?" was his usual reaction to a tricky situation, says daughter Sarah Colwill, 25. He was always looking for "the blessing" within.

McDonald remembers how frustrated he might be with someone, and Roger would counter, "Everyone has a reason for what they are doing.

"It may not be clear to you, but it made sense to them. Until we understand what that reason was we shouldn't pass judgment."

The two go back to the mid-1970s in Vancouver, when both worked on the province's Robson Square development. At the time, Roger was at B.C. Buildings Corp. and McDonald in Royal LePage's commercial real estate division. Roger later joined Royal LePage, "where he got more deals done than anyone at the time."

"He had an ethical and positive attitude towards doing business. I'd never seen a thing like it -- or since," says McDonald.

In 1969, Roger arrived in Vancouver from England with just a single contact phone number. He called it. Nobody answered. Undaunted, he went out and met people.

Barbara and Roger first met at a car rally treasure hunt.
"It was like living with a whirlwind. He had a lot of energy, and he loved meeting people," Barbara says...

"He could be working away on a million things, and I'd say I really need someone's number, and he would drop everything," she says. The same happened when she played the piano. "He'd leave the computer and come tell me how much he loved me playing."

"He loved me without a doubt. He adored me. He saw a beauty in me I'm not sure of myself," she says.

When Roger died, the couple were at the White Heather Tea Room. He was 65 and had just come from a bone scan trying to peg the source of pain surfacing over the summer. The couple were laughing, holding hands across the table when Roger had a fatal heart attack.

Roger Colwill was born Aug. 28, 1942, in Tintagel, England. He died Sept. 26, 2007, in Victoria.
© Times Colonist (Victoria) 2007