Tribute

Born in Ontario, Canada, on January 10, 1930, our beloved Ted left this earth to join his Lord and Savior on March 31, 2022.

Ted was born to Edward and Beatrice Cooper.  His father was a papermaker who, in 1940 during World War II, took the family to Tasmania where he had been recruited to start up the world’s first eucalypt newsprint mill.  Ted’s years in Tasmania were filled with boarding school, working in the paper mill, hiking, fishing, hunting and developing his signature Australian accent.

Ted’s spiritual awakening came in 1954 at the funeral of his father where Ted realized that it was his father who was alive, and he, Ted, who was dead.  He followed Christ from that day on and his life verse became John 11: 25-26:  “Jesus said. . .  ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who believes in me will never die.’”

Then Ted attended the University of Melbourne where he met the love of his life, Margaret.  Their engagement was not memorable but the honeymoon certainly was, spending a unusually sweltering week in the wilds of Tasmania where the options at night were to either roast in a sleeping bag or be devoured by mosquitoes.  When day dawned, the mosquitoes went to bed and the flies arose.  Margaret has not been attracted to Tasmania since.

Ted started a career in ministry but eventually they travelled back to North America and he decided to follow in the footsteps of his father and re-entered the paper making trade. He joined MacMillan-Bloedel in Port Alberni in 1964, and later moves took the family to New Westminster and then to Powell River, where they have continued to reside because they love this community very much. He was very committed to the industry and to those who worked for him. It was a great sadness to him in his last days to see the great paper mill close down.

After retirement in 1990, Ted felt very honoured to serve four terms as a school trustee. He was one of the moving forces, during the building of the new Brooks High School, to have the teaching kitchen and other trades courses included.

Ted was a wonderful husband and dad, unselfish and encouraging. He was a man of deep and thoughtful faith, of integrity and honesty, buyer of thousands of books, and full of knowledge and wisdom.

The family extends its gratitude to the doctors and nurses who cared for Ted, and the many friends who visited him during his last month in hospital.  Our deepest appreciation to the Home Care Nurses and Home Support Team who helped care for Ted over the past two years; we could not have managed without you.  A special thank-you to Dr Morwood and Family Tree Clinic and the pastors at Westview Baptist Church. We appreciate your great kindness.

Ted is survived by his wife of 62 years Margaret, his daughter Heidi Veilleux (Steve), sisters-in-law Elaine Karp and Pat Muller, brother-in-law Ray Zeinert, and nieces and nephews Paul Tikotin, Eva Tikotin, Robert Muller, Susanne Robertson, Paul Zeinert, Garry Zeinert, Craig Zeinert, Paul Karp and Lianne Allen.