Mr. Robert T. Dickson

Biography

Robert Turriff Dickson, AAM, was born in Winnipeg and raised in Montreal and Ottawa. He moved back to Winnipeg, attended the University of Manitoba and joined the BMO management training program. Following a period with BMO he joined Dominion Tanners, then Canada’s largest leather tannery corporation. That was the start of his successful management career with that manufacturing corporation that spanned over three decades. His career took him from Winnipeg to Vancouver, Edmonton and back to Winnipeg. However the majority of that time was in Vancouver where he and his wife, Mary Pat, raised their family in West Vancouver. Rob was very involved in their community, both locally and generally in Vancouver. He joined the volunteer Ski Patrol in Whistler shortly after arriving in Vancouver and that became the start of 40 year commitment. He was a member and president of MEC, a longtime member of the Vancouver Board of Trade and the Gastown BIA.

Along with his career and community activities he has been a lifelong active member of the Anglican Church of Canada. He has been very involved at the parish, diocesan and national level of the church. He was the Diocesan Treasurer (volunteer) for thirteen years, Chair or Vice Chair of the national church Finance Committee for fifteen years and recently the diocesan director of finance and property. He helped develop and present to the member dioceses a new formula for determining the fair contributions of dioceses to the national church to support its mission that is still in use today. Rob was a member of the national group that negotiated the Residential School Settlement with the Gov’t of Canada for the Anglican Church. That was the largest financial commitment that the Anglican Church of Canada ever faced. He recently completed a six year term as board member and treasurer of the Anglican Foundation of Canada and a five year term as a member of the Pension Corporation committee.

Rob is the recipient of a lifetime member of the First Aid Ski Patrol Society award and the Order of the Anglican Award of Merit

Rob and Mary Pat still enjoy skiing at Whistler and Grouse they enjoy cycling, he still enjoys roller-blading with old friends and rowing his single shell at their summer camp in Lake of the Woods, Kenora ON. However family connections have been and are the central focus of life for Rob and Mary Pat.