Ross Hay-Roe

Ross Hay-Roe left this world on March 24, 2026, with his two children by his side, after three long years of living each day without the love of his life, Lee, as his constant companion.

Ross was born in Edmonton, Alberta the youngest of Edmund and Ruth Hay-Roe’s 6 children, allegedly delivered by his father (an osteopath and MD) on the kitchen table!

After graduating high school, Ross studied Aeronautics at Cal Tech in Calgary. In 1957 Ross married his first wife, Lin, and the couple moved to Toronto where Ross worked on the Avro Arrow. His career as an Aeronautical Engineer ended abruptly the day the Canadian Government shut down the program in 1957. Ross and Lin made their way back to Edmonton where Ross returned to school to study commerce at the University of Alberta, later achieving the CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) designation.

Moving back to Toronto again, they welcomed their two children Jane and Jeff. Ross and Lin separated in 1970 and a few years after their separation Ross left Canada to travel the world in a typical-for-the-era quest to “find himself”. In the end he found Jesus Christ, in India, in about 1974.

Ross returned to Canada, and settled in Vancouver to be closer to Jane and Jeff who had moved to the West Coast with their mother. In 1977 he married Lee Bowden, whom he had met years earlier at work. In 1981 Ross and Lee started their own business together, a monthly economic analysis of the forest products industry, known as PaperTree Letter. For the next 30 years they published these monthly reports, to a paid circulation in over 40 countries. Initially working out of downtown Vancouver, Ross and Lee relocated their home and business to Sechelt in 1999.

Ross’ knowledge and passion for the forest products industry, and Lee’s outstanding organizational skills, combined to make PaperTree the success that it was. It was the perfect way for the couple to be able to spend the best part of each day together – just how they wanted it! This work allowed the couple to travel widely together, including a one-year round-the-world sabbatical trip in mid-career.

Ross and Lee’s penchant for entertaining led them to often host family and friends for summer BBQs, Boxing Day lunches, dinner parties, the annual Handel’s Messiah party, or G&Ts on the patio. These occasions will continue to be fondly remembered.

Ross leaves behind his children Jane and Jeff (Jacquie), 11 grand-children (and spouses) and 6 great-grand-children, all in B.C.; and beloved family in Texas, Arizona, Florida, Hawaii, Colorado, Oregon, Washington, Australia, and Central America. He was predeceased by his wife Lee, and by siblings John, Kathleen, Hugh, Victor, and Diane.

“Bread from Heaven,” John 6:33-35, Rev. 19:6-8

Jesus once said, man does not live by bread alone. There’s more to life than just physical hunger, physical bread. The material world, that we can taste and touch and see all around us isn’t the sum total of all reality.

There is also a spiritual world, and a spiritual component to life –something above and beyond and greater than the material world, so much greater than just bread alone.

And some people are drawn to that thing above and greater than this material world. They have a hunger for something beyond bread alone. A spiritual hunger that can’t be satisfied with the things of this world.

And many, many years ago, Ross felt that hunger for something more than the material world can offer. And he went searching to find that thing that would satisfy it.

And like many other westerners at that time, Ross hoped that maybe that spiritual hunger he felt could be satisfied in India, a place that was so full of mystery and spirituality in the western mind at the time.

And so Ross traveled all the way to India searching for that missing thing that could satisfy the spiritual longing of his heart.

And while he was traveling in India, exploring their spirituality, seeking to satisfy that hunger for something more than this world can offer, Ross met some Christians. And they handed him a little pocket booklet of the Gospel of John. And Ross began reading it in India.

And I’m not sure how far along Ross got in the Gospel of John, but just 6 chapters in, we get that passage that was read earlier.

Jesus said, I am the bread of life, who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

These are the claims of Jesus. That spiritual hunger that some of us experience, that sense that there is something more to this life, far greater than this material world – that longing and hunger can only be truly satisfied in Jesus.

Jesus said He Himself is the bread from heaven that satisfies and gives life to the world. That is the claim of Jesus. Those are the claims that Ross would have read in John’s Gospel.

Did Ross travel all the way to India, longing for the spiritual, to find Jesus? In India, perhaps Ross was thinking about this very passage, and Jesus’ claim in it. Is Jesus the One who can satisfy Ross’ hunger?

Well, it was Good Friday around the world, including in India. Just a few days from today, in God’s mysterious providence. And Ross went to a shop or a bakery. And bought a bun to eat, to satisfy his hunger. And it happened to be a hot cross bun.

And I didn’t know this until this week, but it is a British tradition to eat hot cross buns on Good Friday. To mark the end of the season of Lent. And these hot cross buns are so named because they are marked with a cross on the top of the bun as a reminder of Jesus’ death on the cross.

And I guess because India was once part of the British commonwealth, that tradition of hot cross buns on Good Friday had made it all the way to India.

And so there was Ross. In India, who traveled there to satisfy that spiritual hunger for something beyond this material world. And there he sat on the curb on Good Friday, looking at this hot cross bun in his hands, this bread with a cross on it, and Ross wept.

The Lord Jesus, the night before His death on the cross on Good Friday, took some bread, broke it, and gave it to His disciples, saying, This is My body, given for you.

Ross sat on the curb in India, holding this bread, and wept. He saw this bun with a cross on it, and he saw it as Jesus’ body given for Him. The bread come down from heaven to give life to the world. The bread that could finally satisfy his hunger.

Jesus Christ said, whoever believes in Me has eternal life, whoever comes to Me shall not hunger. Ross ate the bread and was satisfied in Christ.

As St. Augustine said, Our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you, O Lord.

As some of you know, as Ross’ health declined, especially over the last several weeks, his grasp of what day it was loosened in his mind. His location in the calendar was a little bit lost.

And about a week before he passed away, Ross and Jeff and the nurse were talking. And in an increasingly rare moment of alertness, Ross said, It’s my wedding day.

He thought it was his wedding day.

Now, it’s been many years since his wedding day to Lee. If I’m not mistaken, it’s been 49 years since that wedding day. And that’s a very big number to be off by. 49 years is a long time.

But maybe Ross wasn’t off by 49 years. Maybe he was off by only a week or so.

Revelation 19 talks about the great Wedding Supper of Jesus the Lamb of God. Jesus is the Groom, and the church is His bride.

The Bible says Jesus loved His bride and gave Himself up for her on the cross to redeem her, to make her His. The wedding supper of Jesus is when His beloved bride is presented to Him, to live with Him forever.

And about a week ago now, Ross went to join the saints and angels in heaven to live with Jesus forever. So maybe, as Ross was approaching so soon his final day in this earthly life, and was approaching so shortly his life forever with God and His Son Jesus in heaven– maybe that great veil that hides heaven from our sight– maybe as Ross got closer to that great transition from earthly life to heavenly life– maybe that veil hiding heaven from our view began to get thinner and thinner, began to dissolve before his eyes, and so Ross was able to see his wedding day approaching so soon. Maybe Ross wasn’t off by 49 years; but only by 9 days.

Obviously, we won’t know with certainty what Ross was thinking of; we don’t know for sure which wedding day he was referring to, when he made his strange comment, perhaps almost prophetic announcement.

We can know, though, where Ross has gone. Ross has gone to be with his Lord and Savior, and with the angels and the saints that have gone before him.

Ross felt that hunger for something beyond this material world, a spiritual hunger, which he sought to satisfy in India, but which was satisfied in the bread come down from heaven, the bread of life given for us on the cross, our Lord Jesus. Ross ate that bread and was given eternal life.

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