November 22, 1937 - October 25, 2024
In Loving Memory ~
Clyde William Tucker was born November 22, 1937. He died October 25, 2024; a month shy of his 87th birthday.
Clyde was born in Calgary, Alberta to Marion (nee Clydesdale) and Reg Tucker. Marion was born in Scotland, and Reg in England. Their backgrounds created short term family tension, which was mostly their story, but informed Clyde's understanding of why history is important, and how family ties are formed.
Clyde was predeceased by his wife Shirley Jean Tucker, nee Roll and is survived by his three children Shauna, Hamish (and Sheryl), Robert (and Moira); his grandchildren Gillian, Emily, Callum, Tara, Liana, Duncan, Brynn, Emma, MacGregor, Tristin and Sophie; his sister Joan (and her whole family).
Clyde had interests too numerous to relate and three great loves.
First, Clyde loved his family, and no one more than Shirley Jean, who threw watermelon at him on their first meeting, but was smitten with him after their second when he, trained as a lifeguard, saved a drowning swimmer in front of her. True story.
Clyde and Shirley moved to Salmon Arm, B.C. in 1962, when Clyde, and then Shirley, began teaching at Salmon Arm Senior High School. They raised their three children with just the right combination of benign neglect, love and encouragement among a collection of dogs, peacocks, and other animals, in a heritage home, in the middle of an apple orchard. Clyde and Shirley knew, and were always grateful, that they drew the long straws.
Second, Clyde was passionately committed to the ideas of "community and "education" as the foundation of the body politic: Clyde found great satisfaction in being an educator, first at the high school and perhaps even more when he began teaching history and economics at the fledgling Salmon Arm campus of Okanagan College.
Clyde became the Director of the Salmon Arm campus, as the College shape-shifted to become Okanagan University College. Clyde was passionate about working with his equally committed colleagues to develop an institution that could deliver post-secondary education through-out the interior of B.C.
Clyde was instrumental in the formation of the Shuswap Foundation, of which he was a member for many years. He also sat on the Board of the Pacific Rim Foundation and was a member of many other community organizations. In retirement, Clyde and fellow college educator and administrator Allan formed "Twin Eagles" a not-for-profit consulting organization focused on community economic sustainability.
Finally, Clyde loved the great outdoors, rural and wild. He grew a mean apple and a respectable gladiola. His sunflowers were the tallest in the world, said the grandchildren. Clyde worked in Banff for several summers as a youth, an experience which coaxed him out of Alberta, into the mountains, hills, trout streams, lakes and rivers of British Columbia. He said you knew people best only after you sat with them on a mountain top and watched the sun rise.
Clyde and Shirley moved to Victoria, B.C. in 2012 giving Clyde an opportunity to enjoy the ocean and its life forms, which amazed him.
Clyde's life-time journey westward ended at home in Victoria, surrounded by his family and lots of love, after a brief but precipitous decline. Clyde once closed a letter of resignation from his time on the Board of the Salmon Arm College Scholarship Fund saying: "Well, that was my life: well-travelled with great colleagues [friends and family]..." It was indeed. He will be missed.
Anyone wishing to express condolences may do so by finding Clyde's tribute page at www.earthsoption.com