The Measure of a Good and Honourable Man: In Loving Memory of Fredrick Brian Pritchard (1938 - 2023)

Today, I wanted to share the history of an extraordinary architect and urban planner – one who never boasted about his litany of accomplishments, and always served his family and community as a powerfully quiet, thoughtful, and intelligent man. Those who have worked with me know that I have always spoken about him with absolute adoration and respect: his name was Fredrick Pritchard, and he was my father.

Fred was a genuine example of the meritocratic Canadian Dream: Born in 1938 in a small home in Winnipeg's North End along with his two other brothers (Ron and Ray), his father (William) and his mother (Rozi), they endured a life of absolute poverty and limited luxuries. Imagine having to deal with only a radio, an icebox, and an outhouse daily!

Despite the reputation of the Pritchard boys being a jocular and rambunctious bunch (see Ray's black eye?), Fred was able to escape a lifetime of poverty using his athletic talents, playing football for the Manitoba Bisons (UoM) through a university scholarship. When his dreams of playing in the CFL came crashing down after a horrific train wreck (and an extensive stay in the burn ward), this tragedy didn’t stop him from achieving success by other means.

Once Fred completed his academics (architecture and urban planning at UoM), he would wear many hats over his career – surveying school sites in PEI and Coppermine, and working as a registered architect and professional urban planner in Edmonton and later for the Province of Manitoba. In Winnipeg, he fell in love with one of the City’s solicitors – my mother, Linda-Lee Kerr. And from there, it was joked that the Charleswood Bridge was the bridge they built together.

With his two "baby kids" and his wife in tow, the Pritchard family would eventually move to a farm estate in Kelowna – and later to The University of British Columbia 's Vancouver campus, where he would raise his family and help create a new community. Perhaps, in hindsight, it was his role as the UBC Director of Planning during the late 1990s and early 2000s that truly established the culmination of his life's work (and career) prior to retirement and private consulting.

Not only did Dad help to implement secondary suites throughout townhouse developments across the university campus in the early 2000s (now enshrined in the B.C. Building Code in 2019), he helped to lay down the groundwork for UBC’s Wesbrook Village through his part in creating the South Campus Neighbourhood Plan. Additionally, beyond firmly cementing the tie between UBC and the local RCMP detachment (there's a reason why the fraternity village is beside them), he also did his best to help save the UBC Farm despite plans for proposed redevelopment.

Alongside more prominent names such as Jim Taylor, Dr. Sid Katz, Dana Merritt, and Chris Lythgo ( Catherine Cleveland gets special mention!), Fredrick Pritchard was one of the five founding directors for the University Neighbourhoods’ Association back in 2000, UBC’s municipal-like “university town” society responsible for operating and maintaining community services.

Today, the University Neighbourhoods Association serves over 14,000 permanent non-affiliated residents – and the UBC campus? Well, congratulations Dad, UBC truly is a university city today.

As age took its toll and his various degenerative comorbidities took hold, I stayed by his side as his caretaker, guardian, and best friend despite the continuous decline – the “long goodbye”. Even with all of his flaws, mistakes, and accidents accrued along his journey in life, I firmly believe that Dad was the true measure of a good and honourable man - one that I measure myself by every day in both right action and right conduct.

As someone who follows in his footsteps as a professional urban planner in his own right, I still follow my father’s advice daily: Work hard, be fair, and when in doubt – draw it out! He was also a reminder that if you allow your passion to serve as your purpose, you won’t ever regret working a single day in your life. ?

You are and always will be my hero, Dad.

I love you.