Friends mourn Derek Trethewey and a life lived at full throttle
B.C. developer: Face the World Foundation director affected the lives of many, says friend Bob Macdonald
ARM & ARM: Regarding “dear friend” Derek Trethewey’s death Tuesday, fellow developer Rob Macdonald said: “He got more out of his life in his 57 years than 99 per cent could get in 600 years.”
As reported here, Trethewey and Macdonald bought, partly subdivided and later sold Stump Lake Ranch, a Nicola region spread of 6,600 hectares, plus another 30,000 of Crown land. By 2001, after many other projects, the pioneering B.C. family member and Face The World Foundation director Trethewey renovated a former Canadian National Institute for the Blind waterfront property on Bowen Island with son Sam.
At a living memorial that Trethewey’s friends staged in a Gotham steak house last week, condoler Bob Rennie remembered a 2012 Las Vegas incident that the legendary party hearty often recounted. Down $120,000 at a Wynn casino craps table, Trethewey had Rennie roll for him, and was soon $170,000 in the hole.
“Let’s change tables,” Trethewey said, requesting another $100,000 from the house.
“You roll and I’ll be your banker,” Rennie said. Then, when Trethewey rolled a hard 10 (double fives) and won $10,000, Rennie added: “Keep doing that and we’ll get everything back.” In fact, “Derek rolled 12 of them and, with other winnings, was even again.”
“I became his lucky charm,” Rennie said, recalling that he last saw Trethewey that night carousing with pal Bob Stokes on top of a roped-off and security-guarded booth in the Wynn complex’s Tryst nightclub where non-high rollers line up for hours to get regular seats.
“Derek significantly affected the lives of more people than most could possibly ever fathom,” Macdonald said.
• BUYING LOCAL: Back at his regular gig, Rennie provided surprising facts about overseas realestate investors when addressing Urban Development Institute members Friday. Of the Brentwood, Strathcona, Independent and Wall Centre Central Park projects’ 2,307 purchasers, an average of 61.5 per cent already lived within 10 kilometres. Rennie reported. Foreign purchasers ranged from one per cent at Strathcona to 4.5 per cent at Brentwood, and averaged 3.125 per cent.
• TOUCH AND GO: Who’d expect a Latvian artist to be photographed impersonating
Pamela Anderson, then complement it by crafting an Oscarstyle statuette of that B.C.-born Baywatch star? Olga Silova did just that for her and fellow sculptor Glebs Pantelejes’s Shapes of Riga exhibition at the Winsor Gallery. Similar bronze miniatures accompany 10 other images of her dressed as famous women, including Princess Diana, Marilyn Monroe, Black Venus entertainer Josephine Baker and — her favourite — Amelia Earhart. Like that aviator, though, the show will vanish on May 27.
• UZ VESELIBU: That Latvian term for cheers was fitting at the Shapes of Riga opening, where stockbroker and honorary consul Eric Savics poured Riesling and Pinot Noir wines from the Tantalus operation he bought in 2004 and where he’s decanted much moolah since.
• NEXT ROUND: Elsewhere in Okanagan winedom, longtime Mission Hill winemaker John Simes will henceforth oversee the vineyards in founder Anthony von Mandl’s VMF Estates portfolio. Should von Mandl fancy a “transition” himself, Vancouver magazine would doubtless welcome him back as wine-and-spirits columnist.
• FEATS OF CLAY: A lively pot party filled Royal Vancouver Yacht Club’s dining room recently. It was the North-West Ceramics Foundation’s biannual Oven & Kiln banquet-auction, where founder Carol Mayer made a juried $5,0000 award to Hornby Island potter Gailan Ngan. The locale was facilitated by Mayer’s son and RVYC member Elliot, who was unharmed when an earthquake struck the Nepalese monastery where he teaches English. Nonagenarian banquet attendee Jean Fahrni likely remembered that region from having collected some of the 570 ceramic artworks she later donated to Museum of Vancouver in an undertaking with HSBC Canada.
• SHOW PEOPLE: On- and offstage theatre folk filled Granville Island’s Improv Centre this week to learn who had been nominated for a Jessie award. They’ve been made since 1983 by a society that commemorates theatre pioneer Jessie Richardson. Event attendees’ boisterous response to nominations will reprise 10 times louder when winners are named in the Commodore Ballroom on June 22.
• SHINING BRIGHT: Consul general Seiji Okada recently honoured Donald Campbell for receiving Japan’s Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star. Emperor Akihito had bestowed that honour on Canada’s former ambassador for bettering relations between the two countries. Campbell’s reputation grew when he, wife Catherine and embassy volunteers hand-assembled shelters to aid 300,000 left homeless by the 1995 Kobe earthquake.
• CROSS TO BEAR: Another diplomatic ceremony this week saw soon-to-retire consul- general Hermann Sitz pin the German Order of Merit’s Maltese Cross on Beatrice Schreiber. The 20-year Deep Cove resident was cited for promoting culture via her Bel Art Gallery, enterprise via the German Canadian Business Association, and fellowship via her longtime presidency of the German Canadian Heritage Society.
• DOWN PARRYSCOPE: Simon Fraser University president Andrew Petter feted Russ and Ellen Cmolik for funding the varsity’s $50,000 prize to enhance public education that went to the Surrey Schools: Making Learning Visible initiative.