The Tom Walker Mentor & Life Coach Award

Tom Walker

“I met with my client and ended up being taken to a site on Mount Fuji. Turned out this fellow was an incredibly wealthy philanthropist. He asked me, “Would you design a home for me?” He had a couple of acres near a golf course on Mount Fuji. There are quite a number of golf courses around the base of the mountain.”

Tom and I had been on the 1970 trip together. I had heard that he had designed and built a bandstand in Maple Ridge which I wanted to learn more about. Tom agreed to drive in from Maple Ridge, where he lived, the next Sunday and meet me in downtown Vancouver, on the Waterfront.

“Chris!” a voice said from behind, as I stood in the lobby of the Waterfront Hotel on Vancouver’s waterfront, the following Sunday afternoon. As I turned around, I saw a slightly heavy-set, man in his fifties, wearing a green sports jacket, turtleneck sweater, and dress pants standing directly behind. When he spoke though, it was the same old Tom. One of the nicest guys in the band!

“Hi Tom,” I replied. “It is good to see you again after forty-something years. Shall we take a seat in the lounge over there and order some lunch?

It is on me, so enjoy. It is the least I can do, for getting you to drive in so far, on your day off.”

Once seated, we placed our orders, with the hostess.

“So tell me, how did you get started as an engineer?”

“After the 1970 Kits band trip to Europe, I took a year of science at UBC. I intended to go to architectural school. However, one architect I knew, Tony Wilson, suggested I go to BCIT for two years and then transfer to either the University of Manitoba, which was Canada’s top architectural school, or the University of Oregon in Portland, which is considered one of the top schools in the US.

I applied to BCIT but they had a two-year waiting list. So, I took a few jobs at Kits Cameras, the Bay, and summers prospecting in the bush. Finally, I got into BCIT. I got my diploma, got married, had kids and I have been waiting to go to architectural school ever since.

I wound up with two partners, owning an engineering company. One of my partners is a professional engineer and the other is trained in architecture.”

“I guess there is a pretty close association between architecture and engineering?”

“Yes, BCIT is very good at combining the two disciplines. I graduated in 1977. If I ever win the lottery, I will go back to architectural school.”

“Did you keep on playing after the Kits band?”

“Oh yes, I played with the Kits band through 1972, though I did not go on the trip that year. I played with the UBC pep band because Delamont was still doing that at UBC and I played with the Fireman’s band down at hall number 1. I never joined because it was too far to drive in from Maple Ridge. I also played with Theatre Richmond and the Metro Theatre in Marpole in their pit orchestras.

The last time I saw Mr. D, I was with my wife Susan when she was pregnant with my first daughter Diana. We were at the Kitsilano Show Boat and Delmont came and sat down beside us. We talked for a while. He had walked down from his apartment, a few blocks away. We gave him a ride home and that was the last time I saw him. That was the summer of 1982. He died shortly afterward.

In 1980, we moved to Maple Ridge where Susan was teaching high school. I had been working as a ‘building plan checker’ and ‘inspector’ in Surrey. I went to work for an engineering company in Port Moody owned by Cyril Maplethorpe, where I met my two partners.

Diana was born in 1982 and Emily in 1985. I did all the domestic things you do in Maple Ridge, with a wife and children. When Diana was in high school, I got involved in the music department. The department was suffering from a lack of funds. It did not have a lot of instruments. I got together with a group of parents and we formed a non-profit society whose sole purpose was to fund the music department at Maple Ridge Secondary School. Then we wrote cheques to the music department.

It was quite successful. We raised many thousands of dollars a year for the department. We had pasta and jazz night and a trivia night and so on. I remember doing a walk-a-thon for twenty-five miles, with the Kits Band, for the 1970 trip, boy was my feet blistered. We never did anything quite that intensive in Maple Ridge.

“When did you start your engineering company?”

“Phoenix Structural Designs is the name of our company. We started it in 1990, after working for an engineer named Cyril Maplethorpe. Cyril had been in the Royal Air Force working on Wellington bombers. He told us stories of his war days. I am a pilot and have my own small plane. I have had my license for seventeen years. I love aviation!”

“Does your engineering company take on major projects?”

“No, mostly small to medium projects. We do a lot of commercial/industrial buildings throughout the lower mainland, the sunshine coast, the interior, and Vancouver Island. They are almost all in BC. I did do some work in Japan but that was on my own. Custom luxury home designs which I got involved in through some contractors I knew.”

ABOVE: The first house Tom built on Mt. Fuji in Japan.

“Tell me about Japan!”

“My first trip to Japan was in 1988. My client's name was Mr. Hasegawa. He has holdings in Vancouver. He told his Vancouver office manager to keep his eye out for a certain style of architecture. My name came up three or four times, regarding certain homes I had designed. I was asked,

“Would you be interested in doing some work in Japan, for a Japanese client?” I said, “Sure I would be interested, absolutely!”

“I ended up meeting him on one of his trips to Vancouver. I was given very formal instructions, on how I should conduct myself during the meeting. It was very formal and very interesting. I had always been interested in things Japanese, ever since I was a kid.”

“You might have wound up the court engineer to the Emperor!”

“No, I do not think so but it was all very interesting. Japanese architecture has always intrigued me. About a month later, I got a telephone call and was asked, “Do you have a passport and can you be in Tokyo in one week?”

That was the spring of 1988. I said, “Certainly, I will be there.”

I wound up flying to Tokyo where I was put up in a nice hotel, in the Ginza district. I met with my client and ended up being taken to a site on Mount Fuji. Turned out this fellow was an incredibly wealthy philanthropist. He asked me, “Would you design a home for me?”

He had a couple of acres, near a golf course on Mount Fuji. There are quite a number of golf courses around the base of the mountain. The nearest Lake was Kawaguchi-Ko. It is near one of the seven lakes of Mount Fuji.”

“How is your Japanese?”

“Better then, I have lost a lot of it. They gave me an office to work in, in Tokyo. It was at one of his companies, called Custom Homes of Japan. They built high-end homes for the diplomatic corps in Tokyo.

I spent a few weeks developing the preliminary concept plans. During the day, I would discuss details with my client. In the evening, he would take me to the most incredible places, places that I would never have had the opportunity to go to on my own, like wonderful, exotic restaurants that cater to the very wealthy.

When the contractor who was building the house came over, we would work until eight or nine at night and then we would all go out afterward. There would be a team of executives. After dinner, we would all go to a karaoke bar. They really wanted to know me as a person. My liver took a beating because these guys liked to drink scotch.”

“Not sake?”

“We drank some sake but mostly scotch, ‘Suntori Scotch.’ There would be a whole bottle on the table. The hostess would be pouring the drinks. These guys would each get up and sing. The room was full of smoke. When it was my turn, the only song I knew in Japanese was ‘Sukiyaki.’ Growing up in Steveston, with a lot of Japanese Canadian friends had its benefits.

There was great applause of course because I sang it in Japanese. Then, they wanted a song in English. I sang More. I noticed, everyone was crying, in the front row. They thought I was crying, so they did as well but I wasn’t crying. My tears were from the cigarette smoke.

Anyway, they loved it! It was an amazing experience. I came back home and worked on the designs through the summer. He came to Vancouver in the fall to see the finished designs. We were in a restaurant at the corner of Forty-first and Granville.

I presented him with the final designs. I did my presentation with display boards and so on after the meal. He looked completely stoical! I couldn’t read his face at all. I didn’t know if he liked it or not.

I thanked him for the wonderful experience in Japan, bowed deeply, and sat down. He turned and spoke to his assistant. His assistant looked at the fellow next to me, my Canadian contact, Mr. Lee and Mr. Lee said,

“Mr. Hasegawa likes the design very much. How soon can we start?“

The contractor was there as well. He wanted everything built with Canadian products, except the plumbing and electrical. We ended up shipping twenty-two full-size containers of materials to Tokyo. In Tokyo, everything was put on trucks and shipped to the site on Mount Fuji. It took nine months to build. I was there for the opening party. I was expected to greet his guests as they came in the door. One of his best friends came in with a huge bouquet of Irises and handed them to me and said,

“I want one, can you work for me?”

I designed my next house for him in Karjizawa, which is east of Tokyo. Through the courtesy of the Haseman Corporation, which was Mr. Hasegawa’s company, they

arranged, through the imperial Japanese household, for me to tour the Katsura Palace in Kyoto. I was the guest of Mr. Hasegawa’s father in Kyoto. He was a patron of a Buddhist Temple. I got to see the temple as well as be his guest. I got to go places that most Westerners would never get to go.”

“You built two houses in Japan?”

“No, there were more. Through Japanese architects I got to know, I designed around two or three dozen in all. I have been to Japan a couple of times. A lot was done by email correspondence. The luxury home market though pretty much dried up in the 1990s when the Japanese economy stagnated. I made some good friends!”

“What influence has your music played in your life?”

“It’s become something I hang on to. It’s part of my past and my present. It’s my touchstone for everything. If I can’t play my trombone, I feel there is something missing in my life.

I met Gordon Laird, an old Kits alumni, who was a minister in Maple Ridge. He had a reunion of old Kits Boys at his church. Out of that association, began the renewal of the Maple Ridge Concert Band. It is still going strong. I later became the President of the band.

As President, I got involved in the local arts council and then the BC band association. Years later I became president of the BC band association. Through that association I met lots of musicians throughout BC, the Bruce James Orchestra, with whom I still play, for instance. So, music has remained a huge part of my life. I do it because I love it! I love it. I never wanted to be a professional. I still play with a group called FAT Jazz, which stands for friends and teachers.

I am one of the friends and the teachers are music teachers. I have played with them since 1993.”

“Tell me about the bandstand?”

“Oh you know about that, well when I was President of the Maple Ridge Concert Band, we went on a road trip. We went to Band Fest in Revelstoke. There we played in a little bandstand. I started reminiscing about all the bandstands we played on in Europe with the Kits band. The idea came up wouldn’t it be great to have a bandstand in Maple Ridge? So back home I started playing around with designs. I remembered the bandstand in Dartmouth and the one in Le Jardin du Luxembourg in Paris, with its beautiful ironwork, and the one in the Limmat Park in Zurich. Next, we discussed the idea at a band rehearsal and decided that if we could get the city to donate the land, it might be possible. I started talking to Parks and Leisure people and told them,

“I will do the design but it must have the proper acoustics,” I told them,

“You get slap echo if a bandstand is not acoustically designed. You hit the snare drum and seconds later you hear it again.”

I called up BKL Acoustical Engineers and hired them to design the acoustics. They came up with the ‘Cadillac of designs,’ that would allow every player to hear everyone else on the bandstand. This was fabulous and the city donated the park in downtown Maple Ridge. Then I started visiting various service groups; the Kiwanis, the Rotary, the Lions Club, Kinsmen, and so on. I pitched my idea to them. The mayor at that time was ‘Belle Morse.’ She introduced me to George Price, the president of the local Legion, who

said,

“Not only do I know everyone in Maple Ridge, I know their skeletons as well! I will get money for you.”

And he did, he became the chief fundraiser. This guy was an amazing man. He was a pilot in World War II, a trombone player and he had played in the Salvation Army Band when he was a kid. Before he retired he was in Real Estate and his nickname was ‘Silver Heels.’ We got along like a house on fire.

I went along with him and watched how he got money out of people. We went to eight car dealers in town. When we went to the last one, he told him,

“Everyone has donated one thousand dollars.”

The fellow gave George a sob story about how tough times were, even though he was very successful. When he was through, George said,

“This is what I am going to do. I will write a cheque for you for one thousand dollars and donate it on your behalf.”

The guy looked at him and said,

“George, you would do that for me?” George said,

“You’re a fine upstanding citizen in this community. You should be able to donate one thousand dollars but if you cannot, I will donate it on your behalf.”

The fellow was dumbstruck! George started to write out the cheque and then he said to the guy,

“Of course, you realize, I will have to tell everyone in town, that I did this?”

The fellow's face was priceless, embarrassed, surprised! He pulled out his checkbook and wrote George a cheque for one thousand dollars, right there on the spot. I said to

George afterward,

“You couldn’t afford to write a cheque for one thousand dollars,” George replied,

“You knew that and I knew that but that guy didn’t. Besides, I was going to give it to you and then beat you up for it later.”

So, we raised lots of money in the community.

It has eight stained glass panels on the top that were offered to service clubs. They in turn each donated at least five thousand dollars. In the end, the entire cost was around one hundred and ninety thousand dollars. Totally funded through donations. There were also seventy-two bronze plaques, donated at cost by a local funeral parlor. Each brought in one thousand dollars. I took one of the plaques. It’s in the middle of the bandstand, on the top step. I wrote on it, ‘In Memory of AW Delamont, conductor, Kitsilano Boys’ Band.’

If you go out and see the bandstand, you can see the plaque. I thought it was appropriate. After all, he was why I was there. I was in a unique position and I could design.

The day we opened it the Maple Ridge Concert Band gave it to the people of Maple Ridge. George married his sweetheart, Thelma, on opening day and it was broadcast on the CTV national news. Other cities have approached me, Calgary, Lethbridge, and Sidney but when they discover how expensive it is, it becomes less appealing.

It has been used for concerts, remembrance days, church services, plays, Shakespeare in the Park, dances, and Canada Day celebrations. It’s become a cultural centre for the downtown. It spurred the renewal of the downtown area a few years ago.

ABOVE: c2007 The Maple Ridge Bandstand in downtown Maple Ridge, designed by Tom Walker. The Arts Centre and Theatre are in the background.

The next progression for me was the development of an Arts Centre. I became the president of the arts council and the arts centre became my next project. On opening day I escorted the Lieutenant Governor, Iona Campanola through the centre, so you can see the whole music thing has really been important in my life.

Oh, I almost forgot, I knew Arthur’s cousin, Freddie Lambert was his name. He was my mother-in-law’s boyfriend. He was a real dapper dresser. Looked like Arthur, same hair, fascinating guy! He was in his eighties when I knew him. He had been on the vaudeville circuit. He was a ventriloquist and a magician. He had a couple of puppets. He also had a fantastic sleight of hand for a man of his age. When he died the puppets were at his funeral sitting on his coffin. It was very touching. He loved jazz and played a fantastic harmonica. He used to come to big band dances with the Bruce James Orchestra.