New to the Web Site: In Memoriam Hub Page
Remembering Club Members
Established November 2024
Assembled by Eric Fergusson

Mike Hagen was wondering why we didn't have an In Memoriam list on the web site. It was a good point. After all, there is a lot of content in the newsletter about members who have died - fellow rider's reflections, obituaries, photo essays, coverage of memorial services, etc. Why don't we pull that content together and celebrate these old friends. I've finally gotten around to putting something together:

Go to: BC Randonneurs In Memoriam Page (Elsewhere in Newsletter)

As you see I've ordered by birth year, though I was tempted to organize by death year because that's how we experienced chronologically those people leaving us.

There are some practical considerations in assembling a list like this. We have 4300 members in the database, and counting. If eventually many or all past, present and future members are on this list, it would be a very very long list. I guess we should look to a member's participation level. I think that would mean a rider's lifetime event distance, and also their contributions as an organizer and volunteer. But what would be the approapriate event distance? I thought that 10,000 km might be a good threshold. So far we have 112 members who exceeded that distance. That's still a long list. Maybe 20,000 km (there are 68 members)... or maybe 40,000 km (we have 38 members). But a lot of serious life-time members are less than 40,000 km. It seems a wrong somehow. How about 20,000 km but be ready to be a bit flexable? For example, I think we should recognize members who maybe didn't ride a lot of events, but contributed significantly in other ways. A good example of this is Tim Pollock. There may be other riders on-track to reach the bigger distances but died young. Mike McIntosh fits here I think.

This is a work in progress. So far I've only included members whose passing has a presence in the newsletter. There may be past members who we've lost track of, who are now deceased. This is where I need your help. Who have I missed? Also, what about the criteria I'm struggling with above. What do we do? I look forward to hearing from you.

Roger Street