Genuinely decent, well liked and with a deep sense of fairness.
That's how retired B.C. Supreme Court Justice Eric Chamberlist is being remembered.
Chamberlist died June 19 in Prince George. He was 71.
"He had a conscious eye on the notion of people, you have to," said lawyer Garth Wright. "If you're doing that job right, you send the people away feeling they've been treated fairly, even if they've lost.
"He was good at that, I think he cared about people and did his best to be fair to them."
The middle of three children, Chamberlist was born to Norman and Minnie Michelle in Brighton, England. The family moved to Canada when he was one year old and had soon settled in Whitehorse, Yukon where, for many years, his father served on Whitehorse City Council and the Yukon Territorial Council, the predecessor to the territory's legislative assembly.
In 1972, Chamberlist graduated from law school at the University of British Columbia and headed north to Prince George. By then he was married to Elizabeth and the father of their first child, Leslie.
"It was a natural sort of spot... where they could see their families," said longtime friend and fellow retired B.C. Supreme Court Justice Glen Parrett.
Prince George was also the place to be on a professional level.
Centred on a forest industry vibrant enough to support dozens of sawmills and three brand new pulp mills, the city was in a heyday and there was plenty of opportunity to hone legal skills.
Chamberlist and Parrett had known each other since third year at law school and graduated at the same time. Parrett, who grew up in Victoria but preferred the hunting and fishing that comes with living in the Central Interior, won an articling position at Hope Heinrich while Chamberlist landed at Wilson King.
"We competed for those articling positions and I got the one he wanted," Parrett said with a laugh. "About a month after I started working at Hope Heinrich, two of the partners came to see me and told me that they'd made a horrible mistake and I figured 'uh oh, this isn't a good way to start a conversation.' And they said 'we have never taken two articling students and this year we should have.'"
Parrett was assigned the task of coaxing Chamberlist over to Hope Heinrich as soon as he had completed his articling and he did so successfully. The collegial atmosphere at Hope Heinrich was a help, as was the calibre of talent at the practice.
"Aside from being some of the best lawyers I've ever seen, they were people I got along with well, could talk to easily and had a fairly laid-back attitude to helping everybody out," Parrett said.
Once at Hope Heinrich, Chamberlist continued in that spirit. In 1983, Ken Repstock, who now runs his own practice in Prince George, joined the firm as an associate after completing an articling stint in Vancouver.
"He was a great help to me as a young person," said Repstock. "I could go to him and I could bounce ideas off him and he was very receptive. He was very approachable I think is the word I would use."
Chamberlist worked as a solicitor. In a 1989 Prince George Citizen story, Chamberlist described his job as being a lawyer paid to keep people out of courts as opposed to a barrister, who helps people who've been dragged into court.
Chamberlist eventually moved over to the barrister or litigation side, apparently in preparation to become a judge. For a time, he was also a partner with Cliff McArthur and Bruce Preston in a small firm that lasted about three years. All three went on to become judges.
In 1994, Chamberlist was named a Supreme Court Master, a provincially-appointed position responsible for some of the roles of a federally-appointed judge.
"As a Master, you do an enormous amount of family law work," Parrett said.
"He was incredibly well regarded in that work."
Four years later, he was sworn in as a B.C. Supreme Court Justice. The scope of cases he handled expanded to cover the spectrum on both the criminal and civil sides - from murders and sexual assaults to bankruptcies and personal injury.
He also had to make some tough and perhaps unpopular decisions. In 2007, he found the city could not revoke the business licence of an escort agency that was operating in a residential area. He also found the city could not force the agency to provide criminal record checks for each of its escorts.
Parrett said Chamberlist often acted as a sounding board for him.
"Ric had one of the finest analytical minds I ever saw," Parrett said. "It didn't matter whether it was an area he practices in or not, his mind and his instincts were so good that he would give you an analysis or thoughts that steered you in the right direction."
As a parent of two boys and two girls, Chamberlist was devoted to his family when away from work.
None of the children went on to pursue careers in law, opting instead for vocations in woodworking, environmental consulting, mental health care and hotels.
He was also a "superb" duplicate bridge player and had a passion for the arts, particularly classical music.
"He and Liz went to the theatre, they enjoyed the symphony, they enjoyed bridge and him virtually any type of cards," Parrett said.
"He fancied himself a golfer. It drove him crazy that I would play perhaps once or twice a year and would most often beat him."
He retired from the bench in 2010. The Chamberlists spent part of their winters in San Diego and traveled extensively, enjoying cruises in particular. Destinations included Alaska, Panama and the Caribbean.
They had been planning on a trip to Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific but about a month and a half before they were to embark, Chamberlist was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
Even as the ailment took hold, Chamberlist remained true to his reputation as a caring friend.
Longtime Prince George lawyer Bruce Kaun died in April and one of his last requests was to have a memorial party in the back yard of his home. Despite his troubles, Chamberlist attended.
"Clearly, he was terribly unwell, but he wasn't going to miss saying goodbye to Bruce and hello to some of his friends," said Marie-Louise Ahrens, a Crown prosecutor who has known Chamberlist and his family for many years.
"We will all miss him."
Chamberlist is survived by his wife Elizabeth, brother Anthony (Tony), and children Leslie, Jason, Darcy, and Derek.
