Tomorrow, Oct. 26, Dave Barker will receive a West Vancouver Community Award in the heritage category.
Three paths led Dave to this special moment in his life: professional and volunteer service, family roots in the community and an encyclopedic knowledge of his hometown's history. He's a war baby, born in 1940, and an only child, raised by his father. In West Vancouver when Dave grew up everyone knew everyone and there was no shortage of family and friends for father and son. Dave's family history reads like a history of the community: his aunt Peggy was West Vancouver's first May Queen, escorted by Reeve Joe Leyland in the 1931 May Day parade. Thirty years later, Leyland inducted Dave into the King David Masonic Lodge.
His grandparents, George and Martha Jane "Jenny" Barker, made their way to West Vancouver in 1911, the year before the community's incorporation, pitching a tent on the stretch of beach just below where 22nd Street is today.
"Jenny was a real pioneer. She was deaf and wore her wig sideways but she kept all her marbles and, oh boy, could she talk and remember. That's where I get my 'talkability,'" says her grandson.
For West Vancouver's 75th anniversary in 1987, Jenny Barker was one of the 75 people chosen to represent the community. Her role was "motherhood"; the honour was posthumous. Jenny, born in 1882, lived to the age of 99.
Dave's great-grandparents, Minnie and Art Bossenberry, operated the Boathouse, a café and boat rental at the foot of 17th Street, and the concession stand at the Hollyburn Pavilion on the northwest corner of Marine Drive and 17th Street.
Dave's father, Jim, managed the pavilion's dance band and the roller rink. There he met wife-to-be Eleanor Barclay, who had come out from Alberta in 1918 to help her Bossenberry grandparents.
Minnie Bossenberry was nearing her century when she died in 1964, so she claimed. According to Dave, Minnie's age fluctuated considerably. In any case, as the keeper of the family's stories, Dave's knowledge of West Vancouver goes back well over 100 years.
During his student years - Hollyburn elementary, Inglewood and West Vancouver secondary - Dave wasn't interested in history or in school. "I was always out with my friends, building forts along the creeks or at Air Cadets or DeMolay or the West Van Hotrodders' club."
He was open to direction, however, and fortunately, two men were there to help chart the young man's future course. One night in the kitchen at home on 17th Street, while they washed and dried the supper dishes, Dave's father, "asked what interested me. I said I enjoyed working with kids and he said, 'Why not go into teaching?'" At the University of British Columbia Dave had the good fortune to study with professor of English Warren Tallman, now remembered as the man who brought Allan Ginsberg and the Beat poets to Vancouver. It was 1959, the time of jazz, folk music and coffee houses. Dave didn't go fully beatnik, but it was close. He had his own set of bongo drums, played in a folk music band and let his red hair grow long.
Dave graduated in 1964 with a degree in education and went to teach in Fort St. John, where he got involved in theatre at school and in the community. The next year, he was back in West Vancouver, teaching Grade 8 at Inglewood. When West Vancouver secondary built a theatre for its students, Dave created the school's theatre department. For several years, he covered theatre - amateur and professional - for the Lions Gate Times.
Eventually, teaching and theatre took a back seat to school administration and Dave retired early, in 1998, his way, he says, of eliminating the neverending paperwork from his life.
He didn't stop working. Dave has been a member of West Vancouver Historical Society since he retired, serving as president and vice-president, and now edits the society's newsletter. He continues to be active in Theatre West Van as producer, stage manager and set designer.
Dave Barker is, and has been, tireless in his service to West Vancouver and tomorrow's award will be confirmation of his dedication and his community's appreciation. Well done, Mr. Heritage.
Laura Anderson works with and for seniors on the North Shore. 778-279-2275 [email protected]
