Galt Wilson, Q.C.     March 29, 1930 to January 31, 2012

Colleagues and friends of Galt Wilson, former municipal lawyer and LGMA life member were saddened to hear of his passing on January 31, 2012.

Galt was born March 29, 1930 in London, Ontario, but it was certainly in B.C. where he left his mark on communities as a municipal lawyer.  He is remembered fondly and with appreciation by those of us fortunate enough to have known and worked with him.

Starting his legal career in White Rock, Galt later moved to Prince George; then to Kelowna where he worked in partnership with Robert Bauman (now Chief Justice of the BC Supreme Court) and then to Victoria where he was joined by Lorena Staples Q.C. before joining Harman, Wilson & Company where he met Guy McDannold.

In 1988, Galt left Harman, Wilson as one of the co-founders of Wilson, Staples, McDannold & Marley.  But, true to form, Galt’s restless nature only allowed him a few years sojourn with us on Burdett Avenue before he decided to take his first ‘retirement’ from the practice of law.

During the course of his legal career he worked with many mayors, ‘aldermen’, administrators, ‘clerks’, treasurers and other local government officials from the 1950s to the 1990s.  Talented and redoubtable; a tireless legal advocate and keen solicitor, Galt served as legal advisor to communities large and small throughout the province and was instrumental in the incorporation of many.  Galt’s legal opinions were generally a paragon of brevity.  He was also a generous teacher and mentor and, as an example, for several weeks before his retirement he sat down one afternoon a week with Kathryn Stuart, then newly called to the bar, and took her through each Part of the Municipal Act.

Even within the law, Galt’s career was rich and varied and included much energy given to education, including lecturing in Municipal Law at the University of Victoria Law School (where I met him as a law student), contributions to the Law Society’s professional education program, educational sessions at MOA (as it then was) and regional chapter meetings and being instrumental in the establishment of the original MATI program.

A life in the law, however, was only a part of Galt Wilson.  In Prince George, he served on the School Board during a period of heady expansion of the school system in the 1960s and later served as Chair of the College of New Caledonia and President of the BC Colleges Association.  In the 1980s he and his wife Esther were settled in Metchosin.  Here they kept sheep on an idyllic piece of property and once played host to a hastily organized barbecue for Prime Minister Mulroney and his family.  And then, after retirement in the 1990s (and a short jaunt back to the town of Goderich, on the shores of Lake Huron), Galt returned to spearhead the establishment of the B.C. branch of the Nature Conservancy of Canada and to build his own backyard brooks and other projects (often without building permits I was told by one of his sons).  I still remember visiting Galt’s basement with our 2 young wide-eyed sons in tow to marvel at the massive model train layout Galt had assembled.  It wasn’t a coincidence that the model trains passed through towns and scenery bearing a striking resemblance to the landscapes of this province that Galt knew and loved so well.

Galt Wilson made great contributions to British Columbia and his passing is a loss to the legal and local government communities, as well as to his family.   He is survived by Esther, 4 children, a stepson, 9 grandchildren, and 4 great grandchildren.

Colin Stewart

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We are pleased to announce that Sue Beach has joined our firm as an associate.  Sue is a senior litigation lawyer who is well versed in local government law.  She looks forward to assisting our clients with complex litigation in the areas of local government law, health law, employment, expropriation, property assessment and taxation, and other matters.  Click here to read Sue’s biography.