FIELD, Beverly (nee McCorkell), a summer
resident of Sowchea Bay since 1961, born December 21,
1920 passed away peacefully at home on August 30th,
2010 after a long and courageous battle with cancer.
Beverly was born to pioneering parents in Vanderhoof,
BC where she went to school and spent summers at her
fathers’ Cassiar ranch north of Fort St. James. While her
father was the owner of Germansen Placers Ltd., a mining
company, Bev and her mother would travel by pack train
to join him for the summer months. These early rugged
adventures helped Bev to become, as others would later
say, ‘absolutely resolute in whatever she undertook - an
amazing woman’
With a life-long passion for education, Beverly excelled both at school, and later at the
University of British Columbia after her family moved to Vancouver. There she met Fred,
and they were married in 1942. Freds’ war service with the Royal Canadian Air Force took
them to many locations in Canada. During this time, she worked as a meteorologist at the
Vancouver Airport, one of the fi rst women to be appointed to this role, and later taught in
the UBC Chemistry deparment for six years. They settled in West Vancouver, and some of
Beverlys`early volunteer work was driving groups of young boys to hockey games for a
Boy`s Receiving Home run by the Childrens Aid Society. Her volunteer career took root,
starting with a long-time association with the Junior Leaque of Vancouver in 1952, and later
including the Vancouver Art Gallery and Vancouver Aquarium as a docent, the Vancouver
Museum, YWCA, the BC Medical Foundation Board and the United Way. Other organizations
benefi tting from her service include the University Womens’ Club, and a 17 year commitment
to the Vancouver Foundation. Formal recognition includes the Queen’s Medal for Service in
1977, the Elsje Armstrong Award for Volunteerism in 1985, the 1990 United Way Volunteer
Recognition Award, and the 2007 UBC Alumni Association Achievement Award. Beverly’s
keen interest in her alma mater, UBC, led her to serve as president of the UBC Alumni
Association, a member of the UBC Senate, and the UBC Board of Governors. Together
with Fred, she shared a keen interest in art and antiquities, and for many years they enjoyed
journeys to tour historical sites around the globe.
A natural leader, Beverly will be remembered by her many friends as a woman of great
intellectual curiousity, with boundless warmth, generosity, grace, and sense of humour. She
will be remembered by all for her strength and courage.
Beverly was pre-deceased by her sister Pam in 1998, and she will be much loved and sadly
missed by Fred, her devoted husband of 68 years, her two children Buffi e (Stuart ) Moir and
George (Nancy) Field, and her grandsons Graham and Ian Moir.
No service was held at her request.