Herein is our Tribute to Bill Papove.
A
Personal Tribute to a Doukhobor Pioneer
by
Koozma J. Tarasoff and Kristina Kristova, Ottawa, Ontario April
14, 2000
Our
friend William N. Papove ("Bill") has just passed away
on April 13th in a Vancouver hospital. We lost a remarkable man
who contributed to the Doukhobor society with his practical
advice and work. As a land surveyor-engineer he mapped the
boundaries of the western Canadian provinces and territories and
excelled in the world as one of the founders of the Canadian
International Development Agency (CIDA) when he introduced a new
humanitarian approach to social and economic development in South
East Asia.
Bill was born in 1913 to one of the Russian Doukhobor migrants
near Blaine Lake, Saskatchewan. In his youth he organized Russian
drama nights, and otherwise sought to preserve the best of his
Slavic culture. He was one of the first Doukhobors to graduate
from the University of Saskatchewan where he obtained his Civil
Engineering Degree in the 1930s; this led him to become one of
the outstanding Canadian land professionals and a pioneer
consultant abroad. Bill treated people as equals regardless of
whether they were native, local, or international; as a result
the colonial experience of dealing with people from the top down
was transformed towards a new more humane democratic approach in
participatory development.
His professional skills and respect are well known. When the
British Columbia government was preparing to sell back the
community land that Doukhobors had unjustly lost during the
1930s, Bill Papove was commissioned to survey all the Doukhobor
lands for the Land Settlement Board. With his open heart, he
served his brothers and sisters Doukhobors as Chairman for two
years (1957-1958) of the Union of Doukhobors of Canada and with
Peter S. Faminow (Secretary of UDC) dared to comment on the
mistreatment of zealot children behind a high wire fence in New
Denver, British Columbia.
In 1999, Bill financed Volume I of the History of the Doukhobors
in V.D. Bonch-Bruevich's Archives (1886-1950s), and showed once
more his true generosity as a man with close roots to the soil,
with deep ties to the nonviolent movement and one world, and with
a keen desire to probe the frontiers of knowledge so as to help
improve society.
Some of us lost not only a friend, but a mentor. In the 1950s he
encouraged me to study the Doukhobor movement by inviting me to
stay at his residence in Vancouver while I began my research. Out
of that effort evolved my three-volume work-in-progress
manuscript of the Doukhobors -- which served as the bedrock of
future studies.
Through the years, our friendship deepened through visits,
telephone calls and consultations, and a tour of our Motherland.
I learned of his successes and hardships in his life. When he
changed his first job with Consolidated Mining and Smelting
Company in Trail, B.C., where he worked for 12 years, the
engineering section closed for a half day to celebrate and say
farewell to a Bill. During this period in the 1940s, I learned
that Bill lost 85% of his lungs when he continued to work during
a bout of pneumonia -- for which he later paid a price to his
dying days. Yet Bill was not one to complain. My best memories of
him is one who, with a smile, like Tolstoy and Gandhi was always
ready to think about the Big Issues of day and to help others.
For many years I have encouraged Bill to write his memoirs.
Unfortunately, he never did, although he had good intentions. One
day, I would like to write a book on his rich heritage which he
passed on to us in the form of interviews, notes, and countless
conversations. With his life Bill Papove deserves the status of
one of the Doukhobor Pioneers in Canada during the 20th century.
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