Henry "Allan" Hope, is being remembered as a founding member of one of Prince George's longest-lasting law firms and as a highly-regarded member of the legal profession both in the city and further abroad.
He died March 24 at his home in Comox. He was 88.
"He left a huge impact and mark on everybody he was acquainted with," said long-time friend and retired B.C. Supreme Court Justice Glen Parrett.
Born in Winnipeg, Hope was the sixth of seven siblings. By the time he was 21 years old, he had worked in the logging camps of northern Ontario, the gold mines of the Northwest Territories and was in the Royal Canadian Air Force and the Merchant Marine.
"Allan was a man of two hearts and inclinations: he loved the freedom and physical challenge of the outdoor life and work but his keen intellect and voracious curiosity ultimately led him on a path toward higher education and intellectual pursuits. He would abandon neither," his family said in an obituary provided to the Citizen.
Hope also had a penchant for newspapers. While working towards an undergraduate degree at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, he worked as a reporter for the Edmonton Journal and while attending law school at the University of British Columbia he was a night editor at the Vancouver Sun.
Upon being called to the bar in 1962, he chose Prince George to begin his practice because it was a place where he could live on a farm and be a short drive away from his office, the family said.
In 1966, he became a founding member of the law firm Cashman, Hope and Heinrich, later known as Hope, Heinrich and Hansen and then Hope Heinrich before it closed down in 2010.
During its heyday, it was one of three major firms in the city - the others being Wilson King and Heather and Co. Each had a roster of 15-20 lawyers with Wilson King providing almost entirely solicitor or out-of-court services, Heather and Co. primarily a litigator and Hope's firm providing a blend of the two.
Parrett was among the many young lawyers Hope mentored. He said Hope was instrumental in his progress up the legal ladder and credited him for a series of appointments that paved his way to becoming a judge.
"He was ticking off boxes for me and I didn't even know there were boxes," Parrett said in an interview. "So was he an influence? Absolutely, he was an influence."
Conversely, Hope met Gloria (nee Mossey), who would become his wife of 46 years, at a party Parrett was hosting.
"Gloria ran his life," Parrett said with a chuckle. "Allan was far better at what he did professionally than he was at running and organizing and arranging things."
Hope had also developed a career-long interest in labour relations thanks to a two-year stint as the executive director of a board of trustees appointed to oversee maritime unions in Montreal. It was created in answer to the Norris inquiry into the criminal activities of the Seafarers International Union of Canada.
By 1968, he was doing more arbitrations and mediations and in 1982, he finally left the firm to practice solely in the field of labour arbitration. He was highly regarded and rubbed shoulders with such notables as Vince Ready and Bruce Cohen.
In January 2010 he was named vice chair of the Canadian Industrial Relations Board and issues for Western Canada.
The firm, meanwhile, became a who's who of notables as the partners drew in some "key pillars" many of whom became judges - Eric Chamberlist, Mike Brecknell and Edna Ritchie among them.
"Hope Heinrich had a lot of hitting weight, if I can put it that way, for a firm in the north," Parrett said.
Away from the office, Hope lived the life of a "gentleman farmer." Through a partnership with Harold and Nancy Giesbrecht what began as an acreage into a productive dairy farm and greenhouse operation.
As much as Hope loved Prince George, health issues combined with this region's cold weather and concern for his wife, prompted the couple to move in April 2012 to the Comox Valley on Vancouver Island where Gloria's family lives.
Parrett kept in contact with him up to the end.
"Allan was very special to me," Parrett said. "I luckily got a call from Gloria and he wanted to see me and talk to me and I managed to spend four days with him...it was a good traipse through old times."
Hope is survived by Gloria and his children Karey (Howard), Cate, Bill (Jean), Meghan (Al), as well as nine grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
A celebration of his life will held at a later date.
