I hadn’t seen Bill for a few years when I arrived at his senior’s room for a first interview. After politely welcoming me, Bill, now 86, brought me in to a small window table to sit with him and spread out my writing materials. He reached for a pack of cards and immediately started dealing out a solitaire game. However, as he began answering my questions about how he met his wife, Tig, within a minute, he had scooped up the cards and put them away.

“It was the fall of 1945 in an Economics class at the University of Alberta,” he began. “If there’s anything that can make your mind wander, it’s a beginning Economics class.” He checked to ensure I agreed with his humour. I did. “Well, we were seated alphabetically and, of course, as a Brown. I was at the front, with the WXYX's way at the back. I craned my neck to see my male friend at the back and wave at him. In doing so, I noticed a beautiful girl sitting next to him (her name was Margaret Whittaker) and could tell they were not a couple. I decided then and there to ask her out for coffee.”

Two years later, they were married by Rev. Gerald LaRue in the Knox Metropolitan United Church.

Early on in their relationship, Bill had decided to bring Margaret home to meet his parents. He had never brought anyone home before, so his mother knew it was serious. She served them all tea and, as they sat somewhat formally, she inquired, “What church do you attend, dear?”

Bill remembers that his mother had her teacup raised to her mouth expectantly when Tig replied, “Well, I was raised in the United Church, but I am an aetheist.” Mrs Brown’s expression did not change, and looking somewhat severely over her teacup, she quickly asked, “Would you like more tea, dear?” Bill hastened to add that it took his mother no time at all to later reassure him: “Now that I know Tig, I really like her.”

Bill smiled broadly and comfortingly. “We had a long and happy marriage. She died May 2010. And we had four children in six years. All good ones. All smart.” “Tig? What’s the origin of that name?” I asked. Bill smiled. “Remember Mrs. Tiggie Winkle in Beatrix Potter’s book? As a tiny girl, she would run to her parents with the book pleading ‘Tiggie, Tiggie’, wanting her parents to read to her from the book yet again. After that, she was always called Tig.”

After being home with her children, Tig moved up from being a typist at the Provincial Lab at the U of A campus, to being a supervisor. She then gained her B.A. as a social worker for the Alberta provincial government for 25 years. She was one of the team who pioneered “West Ten” – a new concept in social services in the province during the 1960s. She finished her career as acting supervisor for a quadrant of the city before she and Bill retired to Gabriola Island.

Bill’s father, born in Ontario, had been a pharmacist. In the early 1900s, he had a number of pharmacies in Alberta— Empress, Medicine Hat, Carbon, and Edson. His mother taught school in Stittsville, Ont., and his parents met when she came west to visit relatives.

Bill enlisted in the Navy in the summer of 1944. He served as a telegrapher in the navy, and he got used to receiving messages about hundreds of planes dropping many tons of bombs on various targets. He was on duty the morning of Aug. 6, 1945 when a message came in from Oahu that one plane had dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, and that the city had been destroyed in the fire and blast. He was 19.

Bill began his own career teaching in a one-room schoolhouse near Twin Spruce, in the Lac La Biche district, then in Barnwell, near Tabor, Alberta . But after his extensive university training, he did end up teaching high school social studies in Edmonton.

His ability as a leader in education is reflected in the offices he held over the years: president of the ATA Edmonton Public School Local, and a member of the ATA’s Provincial Executive Council. (The negotiating committees would have reported to this Executive.) During the time he served on the executive, a bill was introduced in the Alberta Legislature to decertify the teachers. The ATA executive informed the government that there would be a province-wide strike if the bill was introduced for first reading in the legislature, which it was. On the following work-day, every school in the province was closed when the teachers went on strike. After two days, the government withdrew the bill, and the Alberta School Trustees Association announced they would not oppose the ATA any further.

 Bill also served as President of the local United Nations Association, and became director of the United Nations Banff Summer School, held at the Banff School of Fine Arts. Among the lecturers were speakers from the UN head office in New York.

As well, Bill’s son Ken remembers that Bill attended the founding convention of the NDP in 1961.

Oddly, the day before I interviewed Bill Brown, I was talking to Fran Wolver, a friend who used to belong to UCE. “Bill Brown? Bill Brown?” she exclaimed excitedly. “You’re interviewing him? He was my favourite Grade 6 teacher! I remember him as tall, handsome, kinder and younger than the other teachers. Loved him.” And years later, about 1995 or 1996, she sat next to Bill and Tig at a UCE banquet. She introduced herself. “Fran Wolver?” said Bill. “The only Fran Wolver I knew was in my Grade 6 at Rutherford Elementary School.” Then he proceeded to describe Fran’s age-11 talents and intelligence. Fran was greatly impressed by his memory and the details.

Bill and Tig spent the early years of their marriage in a unique situation. They lived in Bill’s mother’s house on Whyte Avenue where Safeway now flourishes. The address was 10931 - 83rd Avenue and the large old house had earlier been a rooming house. Living with Bill’s mother and Tig’s father from 1954 to 1971 created a fascinating family context. (Through all those years, Bill called his father-in-law Mr. Whittaker, and Tig called her mother-in-law Mrs. Brown.) Another unusual – and wonderful! – feature of the family was that Bill and his mother really enjoyed cooking for the family of eight – mother, father, two grandfathers and four children. All eight dined together. All the children have wonderful memories of lots of laughter around the dinner table.

 No doubt Bill and Tig’s commitment to higher education strongly influenced their children. Their eldest, Gerry, was a UBC grad in Honours English and is an instructor and administrator at Columbia College in Vancouver. The other three all live in Edmonton. David graduated with a law degree; Yvonne is a reference librarian, with a B.Ed  and M.L.S.; and Ken, a graduate of the National Theatre School in Montreal, is a playwright, actor, director and an instructor at Grant MacEwan University.

Son Ken described Bill as a generous hearted guy, though as a child he found him a hard task master. Communicating with people was his love; he couldn’t help engaging with people. He and Tig had many guests for dinners.

Helen Ready, well known UCE member, remembers Bill and Tig attending a UCE Hallowe’en dinner one year – Tig dressed as Alice and Bill as the White Rabbit with large ears! In 1961, Bill joined UCE and was board president when the first new UCE building was bought. Bill was attracted to the church during the Vietnam War, which he regarded as an immoral war; he liked the sermons that he heard.

In our 2011 interview, he summed up what appealed to him about the Unitarian Church of Edmonton: “Essentially, they are a community of people who are humanists and don’t accept the Christian fantasies, such as Mary being a virgin. What I liked about the minister when I began attending in the ’60s, was that he introduced himself in his first service as a Unitarian and an atheist. He added that the family admired early UCE ministers, mentioning Bob Wrigley’s intelligent, incisive mind and Robert Brownlee’s warmth and humanitarian spirit. (A week after this conversation, Brian Kiely wrote UCE members that Bob Wrigley had just died.)

Bill and Tig spent 10 years living on Gabriola Island after they retired, returning to Edmonton in 1989. No doubt the presence of children and grandchildren was a key factor.

A memorable trip that Bill described was travelling in China where their daughter Yvonne had been teaching. The school allowed one of the cooperating teachers to travel with them for six weeks in the spring following her teaching assignment in northern China. The trip included boating down the Yangtse River. Another travel memory was living north of Mexico City for a year at the historic arts community, San Miguel d’Allende.

Bill’s warm spirits and dignified manner (he had gotten dressed up in a tie and shirt before I arrived) impressed me. He thanked me for coming to interview him, and I gave him a big hug. Then I walked to the door to put on my boots and coat. His back was to me as I opened the door to leave: he was already engrossed in his game of solitaire.

Yvonne described her Dad as having been “mercurial in his wit and always very active”. Now in the early stages of Alzeimer’s disease, Bill finds it hard, after 63 years with Tig, to have lost both his wife and his home within 10 days. His Edmonton children see him regularly and watch over their greatly loved Dad.

Born: 1925, Carbon, Alberta
Wife: Margaret Elizabeth (Whittaker) Brown – “Tig” 
Children: Gerry, David, Yvonne, Kenneth
Education: B.Ed., B.A., M.A.
Career: Teacher 1947-80. Executive council member, Alberta Teachers’ Association, and president of the Edmonton Public Schools ATA Local. President of the Edmonton branch of the UN Association. Director of the UNA Banff Summer School.

Interviewed in 2011