Long time resident and past mayor of Gibsons, Eric Small, has died.
Small, who battled several health challenges in the past few years, was 77.
Small worked for the Bank of Montreal in increasingly important roles for 37 years. After semi-retiring in 1981, he and his wife Peggy bought property on the Sunshine Coast and in 1988 moved to Gibsons. He frequently said he came to the Sunshine Coast because the lifestyle appealed to him. And true to form, he soon began giving of his time to his new community.
He was mayor of Gibsons from 1991 to 1996. The newspaper of the time, Coast News, endorsed Small as being the "most likely to come to grips with the Town's problems."
During his time in civic politics, Small, who campaigned on a platform of teamwork and better communication and co-ordination with other governments on the Coast, soon discovered the teamwork portion would be the easier part of his pledge. Several times he went toe-to-toe with other directors on the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD). The most serious disagreement involved Gibsons being able to tap into the SCRD's water supply. Area E director Jim Gurney and the Elphinstone Electors opposed the move. Small took umbrage at the suggestion that Gibsons wanted water at the expense of others.
"We have never, never implied that someone is to go without water so Gibsons can have water," he said in a November 1991 meeting.
A bone of contention then as is now was Gospel Rock. Disagreements with the owner at the time led to a court case that finally ended when the owner withdrew and subsequently sold the property.
An official community plan later in Small's time on council did little to resolve the ongoing disparity of park versus development of the area.
Ian Poole, the Town of Gibsons' treasurer, was hired in March 1992.
"I recall I really enjoyed working with Eric," Poole remembered. "He was respectful of staff. He let us do our work and didn't get involved. He knew his boundaries; he was the politician and staff did the detail. This was my first introduction to council and roles. It was a very positive one. He was a great individual, and he treated staff well."
Soon after he moved here, Small noticed a lack of Rotary presence on the Coast. He approached the organization on the Lower Mainland and was told not to bother trying to get a club going because it had been tried before and failed. That edict only served to make him more determined to start a club. And in 1989, Peggy said, he finally managed to round enough ex-Rotarians to charter a club. Hardly surprising, Small was the president of the new club.
A devout Anglican for his entire life, Small was active in St. Bart's Church in Gibsons up to his death.
Small also volunteered many hours with Sea Cavalcade, the annual Gibsons' family festival. He was a proud proponent of anything that promoted his new hometown, including the Beachcombers TV series. He was fond of saying that only in Gibsons could he have gone from being an extra on the Beachcombers to mayor in two years.
His son Greg said the main lesson he learned from his dad was "happiness only comes from service to others without ambition for self."
Small leaves to mourn his wife of 56 years, Peggy, two sons, Greg and Gibbon, and six grandchildren. Funeral services will be held on Sunday, May 23, at 3 p.m. at St. Bart's Church in Gibsons.
