Rick Dowdall

Edward Richard (Rick) Dowdall          1949 – 2021

Rick was born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan on February 22, 1949, and passed away suddenly and unexpectedly in Victoria, BC on December 1, 2021. He was raised in his parents’ hometown of Winnipeg, Manitoba. He was the second child of three.

Rick was fortunate to be chosen to participate in a special “major work program” in elementary and junior high school, a program that enriched him academically and brought him many life-long friends. In his final year at Kelvin High School, 1966 – 1967, Rick was school Vice-President. He went on to the University of Winnipeg, graduating in 1970. He participated in student politics, serving on the U of W Students’ Association.

Rick’s career included almost thirty years with the federal public service. His diverse assignments took him from the Prairies, to Atlantic Canada, British Columbia, Yukon and Vancouver Island. Rick valued the relationships he developed with colleagues and the people in the communities he served.

Rick married Judith Tobin in 1972, they parted ways in 1991, but remained lifelong friends.

Much of Rick’s work was with First Nations; the nature of his responsibilities would currently fall within the Departments of Indigenous Services and Crown-Indigenous Relations. Later in his career, Rick worked directly for First Nations to support their need to manage their own health services. Rick’s considerable skills, along with his respectful and unpretentious nature, left lasting impacts and helped lay the groundwork for some of the reconciliation efforts that are taking place today.

Rick was not a bureaucrat who sat in his office. He visited all the communities he worked with no matter how remote — up the coast of Labrador and out to the small villages in the Yukon— to see for himself and talk to people where they lived and worked.

Rick met Valerie Hedstrom in the Yukon and they were married in Saskatchewan in July 1999.

Rick retired from the public service that same year, just shy of his 50 ^th birthday. He did some consulting work for a few years and then he and Val sold their house in Qualicum Beach on Vancouver Island, bought a condo in Victoria that would serve as their home base over the next 20 years, and pursued their passion of travelling.

Rick was happiest when he was travelling. He lived in the moment, continually amazed by the people he met and the places he visited. He travelled extensively in North America, Asia, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, the Middle East, Africa and South America. But it was Asia, and particularly Myanmar, where they lived for months at a time, that captured his heart.

He acquired lifelong friends all over the world and kept in regular touch with them. He valued intellectual conversations, meeting new people, and was always quick to laugh at a difficult situation or at himself. He embraced life fully, and loved those in his life deeply. He had a thirst for new scenes, people, knowledge or perspectives that kept him exploring not only the physical world but also his own inner world through meditation and reading.

He experienced countless moments of discovery that took his breath away. In fact, for Rick, life was all one long moment of discovery. Though his health began to present some limitations, particularly after a stroke in 2003, he carried on because travel gave him the wind in his sails.

He loved the movement; sometimes it didn’t seem like he cared where he was going, just that he was going — getting out, going to new places, meeting people, and eating! Rick loved good food.

He was predeceased by his younger sister, Valerie Parrish, in 2016.

He leaves his wife Valerie Hedstrom, sister Patricia Dowdall, brother-in-law Lorne Seier, niece Andrea Parrish, nephews Daniel Lagacé and Michael Parrish, former wife Judith Tobin and many friends the world over.

In May 2022, a Celebration of Life will be held at Goward House in Victoria, a place whose natural surroundings Rick loved, and where he often experienced peace and contentment through meditation. More information on the Celebration of Life can be found on this site.