Obituary for Gordon Benjamin Cool

Life Story for Gordon Benjamin Cool

Gordon Benjamin Cool passed away October 22nd at 83 years of age, after a short illness. He is survived by his loving wife, Margaret, son Stephen, daughter-in-law Maggie, and grandchildren Matthew and Jamie. Gordon was born in Calgary to Ben and May Cool. Gordon loved his family, friends, church, and music.

Gordon worked for MSA in Vancouver for 20 years as a computer programmer and then a manager, but as a young man trained as a violinist in Calgary, Baltimore, and Hartford. He played with the Calgary Symphony, the Hartford Symphony, the Vancouver Chamber Players, and the Prince George Symphony. He also owned a laundromat in Vancouver for a few years. Before retiring, he spent 15 years teaching violin at Douglas College. This was probably his favourite career. He once (or twice…) said that he had tried teaching when he was younger, but didn’t have the patience for it. Something (or someone) must have taught him patience later in life!

Gordon and Marg loved traveling, and had many wonderful trips in their retirement.

Gordon was a man of many talents and interests. From a young age he was fascinated with trains, especially from the steam era. He was a model railroader, and had his own layout when growing up in Calgary. He started building a layout in his basement in Burnaby, but was never able to sufficiently interest his son in the hobby. He was always thrilled to ride a train, especially bullet trains like the Shinkansen in Japan, and the Mag-Lev in Shanghai.

He also enjoyed air travel – so much so that he got his pilot’s license! Just small planes that he rented from the Vancouver Flying Club, back when small planes were still allowed at YVR. Perhaps not surprisingly he never piloted again after getting married… But he seemed to be able to remember every (type) of plane he had been on, and what his impression of it had been. On his final flight to Vancouver, one of his comments was “hmm, I’ve never been on an Embraer plane before, it’s quieter than (whatever he had flown back from Europe on).”

He was also a gardener and a general handy-man. He taught his son how to braze copper house plumbing, the rudiments of woodwork, and how to prune trees. He would always try to fix something himself first before hiring someone else.

Gordon made his own wine. In the ‘70s, he and two friends would buy crates of grapes, and crush and press it in our driveway, and then divide it up for racking and bottling. We still have some of that wine in the basement. I’m pretty sure it is undrinkable now. In more recent years he just went to the local u-brew.

Gordon loved making home movies. After his son was born, he got himself a “Super 8” camera (a silent film camera) and recorded all of Stephen’s early days. Then in the ‘80s he upgraded to an 8mm video tape camcorder and the quantity of footage exploded. In the early 2000s he upgraded again to a DVD-camcorder and then to a flash memory one. He loved the ability the digital movies gave him to create and edit on his home computer.

Many of those movies were made on vacations, especially family vacations. Favourite places were camping in the interior of BC, taking the train to Anaheim and Disneyland, cruising, and of course Hawaii. Gordon took a cruise to Hawaii years before he met Marg, and fell in love (with Hawaii). Hawaii was probably his favourite place in the world. Gordon and Marg went there for their honeymoon and at least 3 more times, including twice with Stephen. There were also many other wonderful vacations – Mexico, England and Scotland, Czechoslovakia (before the Iron Curtain came down, lots of good stories there), Russia (after the Iron Curtain came down), Egypt, Japan, China, Australia, India, and finally Portugal and Spain. Many of these were on cruises.

Speaking of Marg – Gordon and Marg met at a dance “class.” That was what existed before there was online dating. Apparently it wasn’t love at first sight, but Gordon quickly won her over (I’m told their first date was going to the airport to watch airplanes – risky move – but evidently she gave him a second chance). They were married just over a year later; this Boxing Day would have been their 50th anniversary. On another of their dates, again at the airport, there was a bomb threat and the next night at 3:00am Marg got questioned by the police! Fortunately, all of their commercial plane flights were comparatively uneventful.

Marg put up with Gordon’s apartment in Kitsilano for a few months, and then they moved into their house in Burnaby, where they’ve remained for 48 years. And because everyone asks, yes, they still have the green carpet upstairs.

Gordon was quite active at Holy Trinity. He chose the church because he loved the pipe organ, and stayed because of the people. Over the years he served on church council, did maintenance on the buildings, was a greeter/usher, a reader, and an administrator in the last few years. Several times they tried to get him to join the choir, but he declined (except for possibly one or two special occasions). I’m not sure why, but I think that it was partly because he didn’t think he had a good voice, but mostly because he preferred to be in the congregation.

He also loved Camp Artaban, the Anglican Church Camp on Gambier Island. He loved services in the outdoor chapel there, feeling that being close to nature brought him closer to God. And of the amenities there – he loved the waterfront the best, especially sailing (hmm… trains, planes, boats… are you noticing any trends?). He was a skilled sailor and would take those little 8 or 10 foot boats up and down the bay for hours. Having said this, however, he is also the only person I know that has tipped over a sailboat while still tied up to the dock!

But most of all, Gordon loved his family, and wanted to spend every moment he could with them. He is greatly missed.