It is with sadness that BCA learned of the passing of Bruce Warren who died peacefully January 7th surrounded by family after a valiant battle with cancer. Bruce joined the BCA Calgary Chapter in 2015. In 2022 he received an offshore cruising award for his single-handed passage to/from Hawaii and was also the recipient of BCA’s Antares High Pacific Finders Award for the slowest passage that year from Hawaii to BC. Bruce gave BCA permission to share his sailing blog which can be found here.
Bruce was born on April 10th, 1952 in Winnipeg Manitoba. Growing up in Saskatchewan, Bruce became an electrical engineer at the University of Saskatoon. His early career included working for BC Hydro commissioning Mica Dam near Revelstoke after which he transitioned to pipeline work. This took him to countries all over the world including India, Columbia, Bahrain, China, Argentina, Russia, Germany, Japan, Brazil & Saudi-Arabia. His final years of oil/gas work were spent consulting and project managing multi-nation operations.
One of his life-long passions was sailing. Bruce learned to sail on a Laser on the lakes of Saskatchewan, later progressing to the Pacific. Aboard his first boat Chinook, he cruised the Gulf Islands. Bruce did many trips in Tatoosh (42′ Valiant) with family and friends, including circumnavigating Vancouver Island.
These skills culminated in him realizing a life-long dream of offshore sailing by completing the 30 day passage from Vancouver Island to Hilo, Hawaii (60 days total) aboard Watermark (31′ Pacific Seacraft) at the age of 70…solo!
As a loving grandfather to Adrian, Anna, Nora, and Levi he shared his passions for drawing, sketching, pen-and-ink, watercolour and competitive robotics. Grampa’s workshop was always busy bringing to life whatever came from his beloved grand-kids’ imagination. One of his deepest regrets was being unable to watch them grow up. He also managed to re-connect with his son Derrick and get to know his other two grandchildren Evan and Axton.
Bruce turned his time to volunteering in his later years, working with the Mustard Seed and the Food Bank, volunteering as a Calgary Youth Science Fair judge, blood donation with the Red Cross and, most passionately, being a mentor for youth robotics teams. He began sharing his computer and engineering knowledge with Earnest Manning High School’s FRC team a decade ago. His intense passion for robots inspired his grandson Adrian to join an FTC robotics team where both Mike and Bruce have become valued mentors. During the season he could be found 6 days a week at robot build-spaces. Even while in hospital this last month he was mentoring remotely.
Bruce is predeceased by his parents Bruce and Helen, sister Elaine and sister-in-law Val. He is survived by his wife Robin, brother Jim, sisters Kim (Lewis), Lori (Kelly) and Theresa (Wes) as well as his sons Mike (Esther) and Neil (Leah), and Derrick (son of former wife Debbie).
There will be an informal Celebration of Life on January 18 in Calgary and a scattering of ashes in the spring in the waters off Sidney / Canoe Cove.
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