Bill was the son of my father’s twin brother, Gordon, and the only male in our generation of the Turner family. He was also twenty years older than my sister and me, and stories of “Billy’s” achievements formed a strong thread in our childhood. We always looked up to him. I didn’t know him personally at that time, but I feel very lucky to have got to know him better in adulthood. I found him warm and friendly; he loved to laugh, and he was unfailingly interesting to talk with. I remember I had just received a Karl Marx board game when he visited me and my father in Victoria, and that sparked off some very good discussions (I remember thinking, “For someone so conservative, he’s incredibly open-minded!”). He came to a party in my basement apartment in Toronto, after which my friends kept asking me when he was going to come back again. My husband and I enjoyed visiting him and Irene in Mississauga, Ottawa and Invermere, and we were always struck by his warmth, his powerful intelligence, his sense of social responsibility and the tender-hearted way he loved his family. I know you will all miss him deeply. The death of someone like Bill truly leaves the world a poorer place.
