My condolences, Maureen and family,
I was most fortunate to meet Neil for the first time in Sep. 1984, courtesy of an introduction by Easton Wren who hired me at Petrel Consultants. After finishing my doctorate in the early 1990s, Neil was most kind to invite me back to Petrel. He was my boss and we’ve been friends ever since. My fondest memories of that period are squash and carbonate geology – the order didn’t matter. He was a very skilled, clever and dogged player – as you’d expect. Neil was fascinated by some of the most cryptic rocks I’ve ever seen and there usually were samples and photographs on his desk which he patiently led me through. If he had an unstated ambition to convert me into a geologist, or at least into one that thought like one, it worked. I was well aware that he’d served as President of the Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists and the spirit of volunteerism must have rubbed off.
Attached are photos from a field expedition in the farthest northeast of British Columbia from August 1993 to verify a crazy ‘exploration’ concept. Seeing Neil in the field was like taking an animal from the zoo and putting it into its native habitat. The best part of the day was when we convened at the Muncho Lake Lodge at the end of day. The lodge owners were brilliant – they imported a fine German pilsner, Warsteiner. Neil would take it down in one draught – and then we’d get hours of enlightening speculation about what we saw that day. True happiness. Years later he’d wave a finger at me in his professorial way and say, ‘John – about those Proterozoic fabrics, the interpretations are all wrong and I’m going to write a paper about it’.
Neil became a wonderful mentor and we met sporadically right through his days at Bow Manor. There were dinners at his favourite Indian restaurant on 19th St and Northmount and long CSPG Past Presidents’ dinner reminiscences. Through it all we shared stories about our respective adventures in the mountains and he generously shared his discoveries about life. I was very fortunate to have been a small part of his very active and meaningful life.
John Varsek
Photo captions from helicopter-supported geological field study in northeast BC, August 1993:
A. Helicopter overlook (L to R) – John Varsek, Adam Hedinger, Neil, Randy Parrish (pilot), Drew MacGregor (unseen photographer)
B. Neil pondering a geological enigma
