Remembering Chris — Kamloops’ Chris Rose has died aged 89

“How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.”
—Winnie the Pooh

Wife, Gine, and family members wrote: “Our dear husband, father, grandfather, great grandfather, and friend to many, Chris Rose, transitioned peacefully from this life on Wednesday Sept. 24th surrounded by his loving family and the loving care of his nurses and aides.” Following a recent accident he had been in poor health for some time.

Staff from the Chris Rose Therapy Centre for Autism shared a message:

Chris was 89 years old, and his life was one of gentle strength, compassion, and dedication. His legacy is deeply embedded in the work we do every day at the Centre-a place founded on, the values he lived by: kindness, dignity, and unwavering support for others.

This is a significant loss for our community, and especially for those whose lives have been changed through the support and care provided at the Centre. We take comfort in knowing that Chris’s legacy lives on in every child who finds their voice, every family who feels seen, and every act of care we offer in his name.

“We take comfort in knowing that Chris’ legacy lives on in every child who finds their voice, every family who feels seen and every act of care we offer in his name,” it reads.

An obituary at Castanet Kamloops continues:

“When I think about Chris, he was like the glue for the community,” former SD73 school trustee Annette Glover told Castanet Kamloops.

“He had so much interest in the wellness of the community, whether it was with the kids when he was a principal or when he was a school trustee, or when he got involved with feeding the homeless. He was just a wonderful, wonderful man — always gentle.”

Rose was born in Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, in 1935, and trained as a young man to be a teacher. He took an interest early in his career in working with children with special needs.

He immigrated to Canada with his wife and young child in 1964, and he was named principal of a school for deaf children in Burnaby three years later.

Rose moved to Kamloops in 1970 after taking a job with the local school district, which was opening its first institution for the mentally disabled — Fitzwater School for the Handicapped. He worked there for eight years before being named principal.

He went on to be principal at a number of Kamloops schools before retiring from teaching in 1996 and going to work with the Giant Steps Autism Program, which grew to become the facility now bearing his name.

‘The kids always came first’

Longtime friend Dan Hines said Rose’s superpower was getting to know people.

“I think what I will remember the most about Chris is that he noticed people, he was present when you talked to him,” he said.

“He used to memorize all the kids in his school in the first week and he would know them by name, so when he would bump into them he could talk to them. He started to collect information so any time he interacted with these young people he could build a relationship with them.”

Glover shared a similar memory, describing her first encounter with Rose — a recess outside Beattie Elementary School in 1996. He was the principal and she was a school trustee.

“He was like a pied piper with all the little elementary kids following him around at recess out on the playground — it was really cool,” she said.

[Ken Gray] Kathie and I have our own memories of time spent with both Chris and Gine. Shortly after we arrived at St. Paul’s Cathedral in Kamloops, a parish in which both Chris and Gine participated in creative, supportive, and compassionate ministry in so many ways over so many years, they invited us to join them up in Knutsford where they monitored a series of blue jay bird boxes, an avian restoration project sponsored by the Kamloops Naturalist Club. Their love of nature joined well with their knowledge that conservation was necessary for creation’s renewal. During one of our first Season of Creation celebrations at the cathedral, Gine created a marvellous blue jay mobile which may still hang over some pews at the back of the church.

Thinking further afield, and of his roots in Africa which he never forgot, Chris connected me with Eddie Cross, a politician and economic critic living in Zimbabwe who continues to press for justice and peace in a struggling democracy in what was once described as the “breadbasket of Africa.”

The above testimonies provide a clear picture of Chris: Chris was local; Chris was global; Chris was thoughtful and curious; Chris was generous; Chris was family; Chris was community; Chris was faithful; and he died, hopeful. It remains for us all to take those things we admired in him, and incorporate them into our present lives.

Blessings on your journey Chris. Funeral arrangements have not yet been  announced. Watch this space.

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