Franz August Forster

We say good-bye to Frank Forster today, a father, a husband, an uncle, a grandfather, a cousin to many and a friend to all. His steadfast determination to hang on came with relief as his ailing body let go, suffering from dementia he accepted his time and passed quietly with his wife and son nearby.

His life spanned 65 years in Canada after leaving his birth country of Austria. Along with his pregnant new bride, loving wife Edith they embarked on the adventure of a lifetime coming to Canada. As an intellect his calling was engineering, his entire career he was a Professional Engineer and sometimes an architect for our family construction business. As a man his love was family, mountains and the wild seas and sometimes the lofty skies. Whether it was kayaking in the far north, skiing Whistler till he was 87 or flying his ultralight for hours on end he lived his adventures and shared his stories. Some were very tragic as in the ascent to Mt. Baker with his friend Bill, they were 5 minutes away from getting off the glacier when they fell into a deadly crevasse. Bill passed almost instantly , while Frank was in the depths of the ice crevasse he recalled his near death experience. He heard beautiful music, feelings of bliss and joy were with him, he was travelling towards a light… as the paramedics revived him he came back into his injured broken body and recovered. It was not his time..

Life continued with many treasured moments with family and friends. As founding members of the Richmond Tennis club their love of tennis lasted over 50 years. As a newly landed immigrant his English was minimal but thru his engineering work he quickly became fluent, he would always recount his first day of work in Canada, starting on Easter Monday which was unheard of in his homeland.

He is predeceased by his youngest son Chris and daughter Carol, his sister Gretl and brothers in-law, Fritz and Rudi. Raised in a devout Catholic family he formed his own spirituality when he came to Canada, his church was the open mountains, the wild seas and all of nature. He respected all creatures and thru his ever-present photography one could see his love and appreciation of all life.

In his final months he was supported and cared for with love and grace by all staff in 1-East at the Minoru Residence, our undying gratitude and appreciation to all staff will always be remembered, thank-you.

He is survived by Edith, his wife and life partner of 70 years, his oldest son Peter, his grandsons Nicholas and Liam, his sister in-law Inge Viktora, his nieces, Susi, Iris, Claire and Sandy and in Austria his nieces Susi and Monica.

His wishes were to be cremated and will be fulfilled by Devlin Funeral Home in Gibsons. A celebration of life will be posted here shortly…