Scott Gordon Robertson

December 17, 1954 – April 30, 2015

Scott passed away at home in Comox, BC. He is survived by his loving wife Raelene (nee MacDonald), his mother June of Hamilton, his brothers, Mark, Glenn, James and his sister Judy. Scott was the eldest of the 5 children.

He was born and raised in Hamilton, Ontario.

He loved running and athletics. He competed in school in track and field, cross country running, badminton, and orienteering. Through orienteering he travelled on high school sponsored trips to Europe on several occasions.

He attended Northern Illinois University in DeKalb on a track scholarship. With the death of his father, he left school and returned home.

With the vision of becoming a military fitness instructor, he joined the Canadian military. He was proud of setting the course record for the basic training obstacle course.(1.) As his military career was not heading where he envisioned it would go, he left the military, and moved to Halifax staying with orienteering friends.

At the 1977 Canadian Orienteering championships in Wentworth Nova Scotia, he met Raelene – the love of his life. He moved to Calgary in 1978 and they were married in July.

He got a degree in Photogrammetry from the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (2.) and was the first Canadian Orienteering base map maker (3). In 1980 Scott and Raelene travelled to Switzerland and Sweden where they both competed in the Swedish 5 Day Orienteering festival (5 Dagars).(4)

With the downturn in the oil industry and its impact on mapping services in the early 80’s, he elected to spend the next 4 years at the University of Calgary earning both a BPE and a BEd degree. This began his 22 year teaching career which began with physical education, computer science, ESL and concluded with high school science.

HOLEY HOCKEYSOCKS!

Students loved his sense of humor, his dedication to making his lessons relevant and concern for the individual. He was a passionate and very hard working teacher. He had an extremely strong moral and ethical compass that guided everything throughout his life.

BORN TO RUN

His running career (cross country, indoor track, road racing and outdoor track) lasted 30 years, with him running, at age 34, a time of 3 minutes and 43 seconds for the 1500 meters. This equates to a 4 minute mile. He belonged to the Calgary Thunderbolts running club where he met so many running buddies. Scott and Raelene participated in several annual “Ichiban Bake offs”. He was a Canadian Champion in Cross Country which is a team event. Scott represented Canada in track in a dual meet against Belgium.

He also represented Canada in the World Orienteering Championships in 1976 in Scotland. (5)

Scott held numerous course and race records for 5km, 10km, and half marathon road races throughout Alberta. He captained an all-star team from Alberta which won both the International Jasper to Banff Road Race and the Kananaskis 100 km event.

DRIVE FOR SHOW, PUTT FOR DOUGH

In 1996, he made a serious commitment to golf joining Cottonwood Golf Course south of Calgary. Like running, he loved to practice as well as competing. He would play an average of 75 rounds during the 6 months a year that were playable in Calgary’s climate. He and Raelene moved to Comox in 2012 for the 12 month golf season. They joined Crown Isle where he played 207 rounds his first full season. He often said “Why didn’t we move here sooner?”

In 2014, he became Senior Club Champion and missed being the Open Club Champion by one stroke. He was proud to be named “Golfer of the Year” in both 2013 and 2014.(10.)

Together, Scott and Raelene enjoyed vacations to Oregon, California, Utah, and Nevada. They discovered many golf courses and hikes. Most memorable was the three day hike, from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon down to the Colorado River and back up. (11.)

He repeatedly said upon return from holidays down south that Comox did not feel like home but more a vacation destination.

(*1-6,10,11, please refer to the images section)