Hersey Sewell of Sechelt was a leader from very early days.
The man whom his wife, Donna Sewell, calls a "quiet, gentle giant," full of kindness and patience, passed away Jan. 31, on his birthday, of pancreatic cancer.
Family and friends will be holding a memorial for him this coming Saturday, May 15, according to his wishes, at Celebration Gardens in Selma Park. Sewell was born in West Vancouver in 1931. As a teenager, he was honoured by the Province newspaper as an example of leadership among newspaper carriers, and as a King Scout troop leader he was cited as an example to youth. He remained active in scouting all his life. In North Vancouver, he was voted Lion of the Year in 1977. Shortly after, in 1979, he moved to Sechelt and worked for B.C. Tel. After retirement, he continued to work with the Telephone Pioneers organization. It was in Sechelt that his contribution to the community really began. As a member of the RCMP Auxiliary Police, Sewell learned the powers of observation. Friends say he was quiet but he didn't miss a thing. Over many years, his volunteer contribution to Sunshine Coast Community Services was huge: he was a driver for Meals on Wheels and also gave his time to the Lifeline program. His community contributions earned him the award of Sechelt Citizen of the Year in 2000. Sewell was travelling at the time, so his sister, Gwen Kievill, accepted the award on his behalf. His family remembers him as the person who spent many years cleaning up Sechelt, from catching a good many motorists in the Speed Watch program to picking up thousands of pop cans and depositing hundreds of dollars into his grandchildren's accounts. Sewell was married and had a son and daughter and one grandson by his first marriage. When his wife, Marion, died, he married a second time. Though he and Donna married only in 1996, Donna says that they did more in seven years than most people do in a lifetime. Together, they travelled to Alaska and Arizona and went camping with their grandchildren. Sewell loved to putter around his Sechelt home; he also liked to canoe, fish and hike, which he did as recently as last June. Many residents of the Coast will remember him as the Watkins man, a vendor for the company that sells foods, vitamins and household goods by catalogue. When he was diagnosed with cancer late last year, he chose to die at home surrounded by family and caring home support workers.
"He left us the gift of peace," says Donna.
The celebration of Sewell's life will take place at Celebration Gardens (Dahlias Galore) at the top of Selma Park Road on May 15 at noon. All who knew him are invited to come to these same gardens in which he was married, to remember an active life lived in leadership and service to the community.
