Tribute

Douglas William Franklin Barry  AKA: Doug, db, VE7 WLF, VE7 TP, Dad, GrandPaw, Old Wolf.     

Doug passed away suddenly after surgery in Royal Columbian Hospital. His loving wife, Irene, was at his side as he left this world to run free with the other Spirit Wolves through the trees, under the moon and stars.

He is survived by his wife Irene, sons James and his wife Sheila, Grant and his wife Christine, his stepdaughter Jeassea and grandchildren Makayla, Victoria, Kate, Zack and stepgrandchildren Heather, Brent, Derrick, Branden and Steven, and a virtual army of friends and colleagues.

            Born in Vancouver, and later moving to Burnaby, he attended Nelson Avenue Elementary, McPherson Park Junior High and finally, Burnaby South Senior High where he graduated in 1961. Here he found a love of music (Big Band was his favorite, Glen Miller in particular) and took up the clarinet, becoming quite an accomplished musician.             During that time, he was in Air Cadets for five years where he earned a flying scholarship, acquiring his pilot license at 17. His first solo flight was July 16, 1959.

            In 1962, Doug joined the Seaforth Special Militia Training Program for 6 weeks. Smokey Smith (Victoria Cross) was his platoon sergeant.

            From 1963 to 1965 Doug worked at Canadian Pacific Air: two years in Maintenance Planning then Flight Operations his last year. In 1964 Doug was involved from the start with the Pacific Flying Club, Member #6.

After being laid off from CPA, Doug worked for the BC Liquor Board for 3 years. About halfway through his time there, he attended a meeting at the Pacific Flying Club where guest speaker Bill Schankland gave a talk about Air Traffic Control.  Doug said to himself  “I want to do that!”.

       Once the meeting was over, Doug spoke with Bill for an hour and a half. Doug spent the next year and a half visiting the Winch building on Hastings every week to find out if an ATC competition was out.

       In 1969 he applied, was accepted and completed 6 weeks of indoctrination. After the classroom, he attended an airshow at YXX (Abbotsford) where he witnessed his first crash, a Mustang executing a snap roll into the ground. He graduated from ASTS course #39 in Ottawa February 13, 1970.

            A few days after returning home he drove to YXS (Prince George) and was checked out (Grade 2) on May 5, 1970. In addition to working as a full time Controller, Doug worked part time at the tanker base loading fire bombers with Fire-Trol.

            Doug welcomed his first son, James on June 28th of that year.

            July 14th, 1971, Doug moved his family to YXX (Abbotsford) where he was promoted to Grade 3 after checking out on August 2nd. Less than a year later, in late March of 1972 Doug started at YVR (Vancouver) and was again promoted (to Grade 4, the highest in the tower at that time), and checked out on June 19th, 1972.

            Doug welcomed his second son, Grant on December 31st, 1972.

            From July 1981 Doug worked as an Instructor for 4 years, then trained in the Centre for one year before returning to the Tower in October 1986 where he stayed until his retirement in 2003.

            Doug had always taken an interest in his community, volunteering his time to many organizations and bringing his sons along with him, or helping out in whatever they participated.

            He became the Assistant District Commissioner at Scouts Canada and remained a Member At Large. It was here he instilled a love of Nature in his sons, taking them on many camping trips around BC.

            He stepped up to the plate to take on Coaching roles for his boys' baseball teams. Here he taught them about Sportsmanship, Fair Play, Respect for one's opponent and that one should be as Graceful in Victory as one is in Defeat.

            When James and Grant moved on to Navy League and Sea Cadets, Doug showed them examples of Patriotism, Loyalty, Duty, Honour and Dignity. He soon joined the Civilian Committee for the Richmond/Delta Branch of Navy League of Canada and went on to serve as Branch President for one year.

            Doug (VE7WLF) and James (VE7LZR) earned their Amateur Radio Licenses together in 1993. By 1994, Doug was volunteering for the Surrey Emergency Program for Amateur Radio.

            While working at Vancouver International Airport, he met the love of his life, Irene.  On December 20th, 2002, on the shores of Eternity Beach in Hawai'i, they were wed.

            After retirement, Doug gave his time generously to his community. A tireless volunteer, he helped with radio communications for The Celebration of Light, Rotary Bike-A-Thon, The New Westminster Hyack Parade, Run For Life, Terry Fox Run, Ladner May Parade, Delta Triathlon, Tour de Delta and, of course, The Abbotsford Air Show.

            Doug truly enjoyed amateur radio, joining the Delta Amateur Radio Society and was the Club President at the time of his passing.

            Doug was very involved with CASARA (Civil Air Search and Rescue Association), became the Emergency Radio Coordinator for the Delta Emergency Program, acted as a Coordinator for North Delta Community Crime Watch and was a member of VECTOR – Vancouver Emergency Community Telecommunications Organization.

            He also volunteered with the Boundary Bay Airshow and Operation Red Nose.

            Through his volunteering with Delta Police Department, he came to value his association with Tsawwassen First Nation, attending several events there and loving every moment. It can be said the people of TFN were very dear to his heart.

            Somewhere in all this activity (“I'm busier since I retired!” he'd joke), Doug had time for his passions: Music, golf, art (did you know he loved to paint?) and one of his first loves, photography. He considered a camera to be a 'must have' fashion accessory and was very rarely seen without one.

            The Barry Family wishes to express our gratitude to all who knew and loved Doug, and for all your kind expressions of sympathy. He cherished his friendships dearly.  If you wish to honour his memory, in lieu of flowers, please consider donations to O.W.L (owlcanada.org), BC SPCA (spca.bc.ca), Nature Canada (naturecanada.ca), or volunteer some of your time to a community event or organization.

Doug will always be remembered as a true gentleman and a gentle man.

A Celebration of his Life will be held at Boundary Bay Airport, 7616 Montreal St., Delta, BC on November 27, 2016 at 1400 hours.