The city and the baseball community are mourning the loss of a friend after former city councillor and baseball advocate Ron Thiel died Thursday night.
Thiel, who served in public office for nearly all of the 1990s and was a co-founder of the Over the Line tournament, was 71.
"I lost a good man," said Thiel's widow Ann O'Shea, who confirmed that her husband had been ill for some time and suffered from dementia. "He was loved by many."
Coun. Murry Krause sat on council with Thiel for the last of his three terms, from 1996 to 1999. The two of them lost their seats in the 1999 municipal election. Thiel and Krause both ran again in 2002, but only Krause secured the votes to regain his seat.
"I enjoyed him as colleague," said Krause, who described Thiel as someone who was always respectful, hard working and very informed. "Not only was he a colleague, but he also became a friend."
A registered biologist, Thiel worked for the provincial Ministry of the Environment for nearly three decades before retiring at age 60.
His expertise in environmental issues and concerns was part of what helped him to first be elected to council in 1990, recalled former mayor John Backhouse, who expressed his sadness over the news of Thiel's passing and extended his condolences to his family.
Of Backhouse's most vivid memories of Thiel was his commitment to teamwork. That dedication played a major role in Thiel's decision to put his own feelings aside and vote in favour of bringing the WHL's Cougars franchise to the city from Victoria in 1994.
"Ron, at the final vote, made the decision of council unanimous... even though he had been on the other side," Backhouse remembered. "That really affected me. It was one of the strongest statements of working to be part of the team."
A contentious issue in the community, due to the fear that bringing in a new team to be the local WHL franchise would negatively affect the BCHL Spruce Kings, Backhouse said the debate was heated.
"But [Thiel] felt it was more important for council to be seen as unanimous with moving forward on this," he said.
That level of selflessness is one of the marks of people who have been awarded the George Connolly Memorial Award from the B.C. Senior Baseball Association, which Thiel received in 1988.
"They do the work and they do the volunteerism because they legitimately believe they have something to offer and they have the ability to make things better and improve things," said Jim Swanson, who received the same award in 2006 and worked with Thiel on the committee that put on the 2002 Baseball Canada Senior Championship in Prince George. "Unfortunately that's too often the case right now - people only get involved when it suits their own needs rather than getting involved to help and make something better. And Ron was one of those people who wanted to make things better for everybody."
Among his baseball pursuits, Thiel was an assistant commissioner and umpire-in-chief for the provincial baseball association. He was also a scout for the Atlanta Braves organization and was part of the group that built the city's first baseball diamond.
"That's a loss for Prince George, there's no question," said Swanson, who remembered Thiel's intelligence. "[He was] a very thoughtful guy, always had a good perspective on ideas and maybe even just offering suggestions on how the ideas would work better and could be tweaked and just very inventive."
A funeral for Thiel will be held this weekend.
