Jan Ullstrom of Swedish descent was born in 1931, in the small town of Sffle, Sweden. He was raised and educated in Gteborg and ml, Sweden.
He left Sweden in 1957 headed for the west coast of Canada. Prior to leaving Sweden, he met up with a distant cousin who had worked in a logging camp on Vancouver Island. The cousin gave him the name of an accountant to contact in Vancouver.
Jan liked Vancouver and with the referral by his cousin he booked in at the YMCA and started to check out the city.
He was immediately impressed with the artistic look of the Marine Building, a skyscraper built in 1930 located on Burrard Street and how it stood out next to the 21-story B.C. Hydro Building.
It is interesting to note that the Marine Building was built at a cost of $2.3 million. The Guinness family of Ireland purchased the building for only $900,000 during the Great Depression and by 2017 the property was assessed at $90.5 million.
Jan said, "Being from Sweden I could not understand the concept of a skyscraper next to smaller buildings. In Gteborg, the second largest city in Sweden, there was a four-story height restriction because there were no elevators in the city at the time.
"I was impressed with the beauty of Vancouver, the buildings, Stanley Park and the Lions Gate Bridge so I decided to stay and I went looking for a job in my profession.
"After showing my marks to an accounting firm in Vancouver, marks which proved that I was qualified, I applied for a job. The partners in the firm were concerned about my English skills but the office manager convinced them to give me a try; I was hired and accepted into a five-year chartered accountancy program.
"I was 26 years old and before my first paycheck I only had $40 to my name. I apprenticed for five years, studied and took all the required exams and earned the title of chartered accountant."
Jan was an outdoor enthusiast and never passed up an opportunity to enjoy a good hike.
He joined the Youth Hostel Association's hiking group on a planned alpine mountain hike at Whistler to climb the Black Tusk Mountain by Garibaldi Lake.
It was fate for sure because it just so happened that there were three English girls taking part in this same hike and unbeknownst to either of them one of them would become his wife and the mother of his children.
Jan was fully prepared and outfitted for the climb; unlike the girls who were not properly prepared.
Each hiker was allotted the same weight to carry and told to bring no more than what they could carry. One of the girls, in particular Barbara Constable, caught his eye. He could see that she struggled a bit with her bulky load and offered to carry her sleeping bag.
She declined the offer but further up the steep and zig-zagging trail she agreed to let him carry it. This intrigued Jan who kept going to the summit because he knew he would see her again another time soon.
Barbara Constable was born in London, England, in 1932 and trained as a nurse at New Westminster Children's Hospital. In 1955 Barbara and two other nurses decided to go and see the world.
To make a long story short, the three nurses from England who first worked at the Sick Children's Hospital in Toronto were on their way to Banff to work at a three-month summer job at the Banff Springs Hotel with plans to explored the area. They had return tickets to Toronto but instead they swapped the tickets with other travelers and took the train to Vancouver, eventually winding up on the same hiking trip that Jan was on.
The stars had already been aligned and they were destined to be together.
Jan proposed to Barbara at the restaurant on top of Hotel Vancouver and gave her a ring that he bought on time.
The three adventuresome nurses were not yet done with their travels to see the world and still wanted to tour the states. Jan and Barbara kept in constant touch with one another while the three girls toured by car to Florida on to Montreal and then back to Vancouver.
They kept in touch by letter and were married in December of 1957 in London, England. They traveled back to Canada, landed in Halifax and after a trip to New York, and then Toronto they took the train back to Vancouver.
In 1963 Jan's work brought them to Prince George. Jan arrived in January and booked in at the Prince George Hotel. Barbara arrived at the end of February along with their first two children. She was shocked about the drastic difference in the weather and said so.
Jan said, "It was a real test of true love. We rented a duplex on Spruce Street which at the time was just outside of the city limits.
"Barbara met Ann Dekker in 1964 and she convinced Barbara to become a member of the Hospital Auxiliary group. It wasn't long and she was a member of the hospital board representing the auxiliary as their president.
"Barbara took her volunteer job with the hospital auxiliary very serious and visited as many other auxiliary groups as possible in the province and over time she became an Honorary Life Member.
"She received an Outstanding Community Service Award from the City of Prince George in 2000 and was a charter member of Grace Anglican Church when it started in 1984."
Upon his arrival in Prince George in 1963, Jan worked for Gardner & Company as a chartered accountant. He retired as a partner of the company in 1989; the company eventually merged with Deloitte & Touche Chartered Accountants.
He volunteered at St. Michael's Anglican Church as their treasurer and later at Grace Anglican Church.
When he retired, he still had a quest for adventure so he went back to school and studied at Regent College, an international graduate school of Christian studies, located next to the campus of the University of British Columbia. During that time, Barbara took up piano lessons.
They traveled to Kenya and for two years they both volunteered as missionaries for a large missionary society.
Jan worked as their treasurer and Barbara was put in charge of arranging the safari travel and the holidays for all the missionaries.
Jan reflected back and said, "We arrived back in Prince George just in time to see Queen Elizabeth's official opening of UNBC 25 years ago."
Jan and Barbara had four children; David (Ruth), Garry (Catherine), Mary and Louise (David) Holmes who in turn gave them 12 grandchildren.
They were married for 52 years when sadly Barbara passed away in 2009; three years later Jan remarried.
Jan said, "I volunteered with Scouts Canada as a leader for over ten years; Barbara was the secretary and the children were involved all along the way and joined in on many activities and some great canoe trips. One activity that we all shared and loved doing as a family was building our cabin at Berman Lake. Once the kids learned how to use a hammer to drive nails they went on to learn many other skills needed to build a cabin.
"We had a great life with good friends and we raised wonderful children. The family attended church together and we worked together. I have been very fortunate in so many ways all by the grace of God."
