Member Profile – Sheila Anderson
I was born and grew up in Glasgow Scotland. I left high school at age 17 and found a job at Scottish Mutual Life Assurance. I started evening classes to gain an insurance qualification but only the law class interested me and so I enrolled In the Faculty of Law at Glasgow University. After graduation took the winter off to get my ski instructor’s certificate and then teach at the ski resort of Aviemore.
I returned to Glasgow and “apprenticed” with a firm there where the only memorable experience was meeting Sean Connery as the firm had set up his Scottish Education Trust.
When I married, we moved to the town of Ayr (Burns Country) and I worked for Irvine Development Corporation as one of their inhouse lawyers but that was boring and after 9 months I move to a local firm in the old town of Irvine.
After a couple of years, we decided to try living in Canada. We left Scotland in October and travelled around the world for 5 months arriving in Vancouver at the end of the following February 1976, visiting Amsterdam, Kenya, South Africa, Botswana, Australia, Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong and Japan on the way. My legal qualifications were not transferrable. However, after 2 weeks of boredom I found a job with a local law firm doing their Land Title work and graduated to being a para-legal in the real estate dept. 2 years later I was encouraged to go back to Law School. The University of Victoria accepted me allowing me credit for 1 year of the 3-year program. My son, Ewan was born 2 weeks after the start of classes and my daughter, Fiona followed 2 months after I graduated. We moved to Nanaimo and I was lucky to article with John Horn at the firm of Sproule and Associates. I was also lucky to be able to take over many of Lloyd Sproule’s clients and became the firm’s solicitor, handling corporate, business, Will and Estates and some real estate. At some point in time, I became the “expert” in town in Marine Law handling the purchase and sale of fishing boats and their licences. At some other point I became a partner.
My partners approached me one day and suggested that I join Rotary. I don’t think I had heard of Rotary but I was assured that I would enjoy the Nanaimo North Club as many of the members were my clients. In 1995 Mr. Rotary himself (aka Bruce Coleman) proposed me for membership, which at that time was still very contentious, and I was inducted in January 1996. I have been a Rotarian since joining the Vancouver Sunrise Club when I lived in Vancouver 2006 to 2018, returning to Nanaimo North in 2018. I was the club’s first female President 2002-2003.
I separated amicably from my husband in 1991 and met Patrick (Pat) in 1994. We have been together since.
I retired for the first time in October 2003 and left Nanaimo for the winter to become the Volunteer Coordinator at Project Amigo in Mexico, a project which is still very dear to me. On return I looked for different employment but was always told that I was too well qualified! Eventually I answered an ad in the Vancouver Sun for the position of Will and Estate Planner with TD Waterhouse/The Canada Trust Company and started there in January of 2005. Initially travelling on the foot passenger ferry every day. When that broke down and was not being replaced, Pat and I moved to Vancouver in 2006.I retired for the second time in 2011 but stayed in Vancouver for another 7 years as Patrick had become a Translink Bus Driver, a job with great pay and benefits, flexible hours, and lots of holiday time.
We started travelling seriously in 2012 and so far, have visited, Peru, Maui, Australia, Hong Kong and Thailand, Ecuador, Colombia, Kenya, Italy, France, Spain, Vietman, Cambodia, Morocco, Costa Rica, Panama, Dominican Republic and most of Mexico. We have river cruised on the Danube and Rhine and the Mekong. Of course there have been numerus visits to Scotland. And we spend January and February in Melaque, Mexico.
I used to enjoy skiing in the winter and hiking in the summer but knees and hips have prevented that. We like camping especially on the Island and now have a camper van, a Covid purchase. This year there are no travel plans while I wait for a hip replacement.
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Dustin puts on a free sports program fro kids. He and VN have partnered up to offer an all ages by donation wellness initiative this summer called Nananimo Community Wellness Park. They are planning a series of large scale events that will be taking place at Maffeo Sutton park. Their first event will be taking place on Saturday May 3rd. Dustin is seeking to garner support, volunteers and sponsors for the park. Dustin is also promoting a skipping rope for every Child in Canada as a health initiarive.