If Mike Bundock could have picked any other country than Canada as his birthplace, it would have been Ireland.
Born in Victoria in 1932 as the son of a Dubliner, Bundock’s Irish heritage was never far below the surface. Dressed in his big floppy hat and emerald green jacket, he was the happy leprechaun that was never hard to catch on St. Patrick’s Day when he followed the rainbow to hospital patients, seniors residences, schools and city businesses. His pot full of candy, he traded gold-wrapped sweets for chuckles. He’d arrive at a school unannounced and after speaking with the principal he’d have free reign to wander around to the classrooms especially seeking out the younger kids.
“He took so much pride in being a leprechaun,” said his son Richard Bundock. “He just spread smiles, is what he called it, and I think over the years he gave away hundreds of pounds of gold Werther’s candy. His heart was always in the right place. If he saw a need in somebody he would just help.”
Bundock died at 88 on Jan. 26 at UHNBC. He’d been admitted two weeks earlier with breathing difficulties but his death was not attributed to COVID. Until that he led a mostly healthy life as a husband and provider to Louise, his wife for 66 years, and their four children.
Known for his caring personality and sharp sense of humour, he couldn’t seem to take ‘no’ for an answer when asked to take on a new cause to try to make Prince George a better place to live. Never one to shy away from hard work, Bundock and his wife Louise had their own window-washing/janitorial service when they moved to Prince George from Vancouver in 1964, arriving just as the city’s pulp mill industry was getting established. That led to a 26-year career as a painter at P.G. Pulp during his prime earning years and after retirement he worked 15 years for Regional Security - his ticket into the building at CN Centre on concert nights.
Bundock’s political ambitions led to two near-misses trying to get elected to city council as an alderman, in 1974 and 1978. He also took a run at the Fraser-Fort George Regional District board in 1977, finishing sixth in a race for five seats. He was always pushing for the city to improve its recreational facilities along Highway 16 and made that promise part of his election platforms and eventually those ball diamonds were built, including Spruce City Stadium, which he helped build himself.
In October 1971, Mike escaped with minor injuries in a head-on collision with a pickup truck that left his car a total wreck on a two-lane stretch of Highway 16 on Peden Hill leading to College Heights, and he launched a petition to widen the road to four lanes. He continued to pressure city council as part of the Prince George Restructure Advisory Committee and in 1975 the province finally approved the project.
Mike loved spending time with his kids, grandkids and great-grandchildren and especially liked watching them play sports. He and Louise never missed a game when there was a Bundock in action, whether it was baseball, football, hockey or rugby. He was a diehard fan and season-ticket holder of the Prince George Cougars and for years was a volunteer with the Mohawks and Spruce Kings hockey teams as a penalty timekeeper.
Mike loved to golf and softball umpiring was his passion. For 34 years he stood behind the plate in the men’s, women’s and youth softball leagues, serving as umpire-in-chief for the Prince George Umpires Association. In a 2001 Citizen feature Mike dismissed the notion that an umpire tends to make up for a mistake by going lenient on a team he might have shortchanged or making it more difficult for a batter from the other team.
“There’s no such thing as an official evening things up,” said Bundock. “If I missed a strike it doesn’t mean I’m going to give the next guy a strike. If a guy tends to be a dirty player you’ll watch him but you won’t be any more strict than you are on anybody else. When I call a player safe or out or a ball or strike I don’t think who is ahead (on the scoreboard), I don’t have time.”
He volunteered his time to run umpire clinics, which were needed to keep pace with the popularity of the game. He was known for taking a young umpires under his wing to help them develop the thick hides they needed to survive the heckling from fans who packed the bleachers for big tournaments and he explained his teaching strategy to the Citizen.
“When they come off the field, the first thing I’m going to find is something positive to tell them – ‘you made a fantastic call at second base, you had perfect positioning,” Bundock said. “If there’s a problem you just talk to them and try to find what they can do to make it better. You never say, ‘you idiot, you blew that.’”
He took the time to teach the rules of softball to his sons Michael, Keith and Richard and they all got certified as umpires, while Barb, the eldest of the kids, became a provincial-level football referee. She eventually got to boss her dad around when he volunteered to help toss flags on the football field.
Mike and Louise bred basset hounds and they helped form the Northern Interior Kennel Club which brought the first dog shows to the city. In 1983 they opened a pet food store – Priority Pet – which they ran for years in the Parkhill Centre. While he was working at the pulp mill he chaired the safety committee and he remained an organizer in retirement as a director of the Elder Citizens Recreation Association. Even at 88, he kept picking up the recycling material at ECRA and the other seniors centres in the city, shoveling sidewalks or doing odd jobs.
