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Peter Hepher named Creston's 2014 citizen of the year

After a lifetime of public service to Peter Hepher being named Creston's 2014 citizen of the year...
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Citizen of the year Peter Hepher taking a ride of honour in Saturday’s Creston Valley Blossom Festival parade.

After a lifetime of public service — from the Army to journalism to volunteering with charities and non-profits — Peter Hepher was named the 2014 citizen of the year (joining the ranks of Henry Schoof, Phil Thomas and Norm Husband) at Friday’s Creston Valley Blossom Festival opening ceremonies.

“I didn’t think I was deserving of it,” he said on Monday. “I’m very honoured. There are a lot of other people more deserving.”

At the age of 93, Hepher is still going strong, and is currently involved with several community organizations:

•the Creston-Kootenay Foundation, of which he is a founding member, and currently chairs the marketing/communications and environment committees, as well as writing articles and press releases;

•the Creston Valley Community Housing Society, of which he was a founding member in 2008, and is still an active board member;

•the Creston Rotary Club, participating in fundraising and community projects;

•the Creston Valley Community Network; and

•the United Church of Canada, serving in many capacities in volunteer and community building efforts.

Hepher is also a regular contributor to the local press, through letters to the editor and by taking a regular turn writing The Voice of Experience column co-ordinated by the Therapeutic Activation Program for Seniors. (His most recent columns can be found here and here.)

Serving others is nothing new to Hepher, who was born Christmas Day 1920 in Boswell. Despite a cleft palate (which childhood surgery in Spokane, Wash., only partially repaired) and reduced vision in one eye from a childhood accident, he volunteered for the Canadian Army during the Second World War.

“A story is told that he memorized the letters on the standard eye chart so that he could pass his Army physical examination,” said Creston Valley Rotary Club president Tim Park when introducing Hepher to Friday’s audience, reading from the selection committee’s notes (details of which are included in this story).

Hepher ended up serving in a non-combatant role in England, where he achieved the rank of sergeant. He brought a war bride, Mary, back to Canada; their first son, Ian, was born in 1947, and they adopted a second, Paul, a few years later.

After the Army, Hepher continued his education, earning a degree from the University of British Columbia and a journalism degree from Ottawa’s Carleton University. For four years, he worked as an editorial writer for the StarPhoenix in Saskatoon, and then worked at the Lethbridge Herald from 1953-1959. From 1959 through the mid-1980s, Hepher was an editorial writer and, later, chief editorial writer for the Calgary Albertan and Calgary Herald.

He easily earned the respect of his colleagues, including Mary Ann Morel, who worked with him at the Albertan.

“Peter is one of the Earth’s treasures, like a UNESCO heritage site, and someone that everyone at the Albertan knew and respected,” she said. “Peter’s and my 16-year working relationship was one of camaraderie, fun, satisfying work, philosophizing, banter and (I hope) deep friendship.”

“Peter was one of a kind — a journalist who was genuinely nice,” said former Herald editor Catherine Ford. “I don’t think anyone who worked with Peter could possibly have a bad word to say about him.”

Throughout his time in Alberta, Hepher’s volunteer work was with his wife for the Unitarian Service Committee of Canada, alongside founder and family friend Dr. Lotta Hitschmanova, collecting clothes and funds for children in war-torn countries.

The couple retired to Creston in 1985. Mary’s health was in decline, and Hepher took on the role of caregiver until her death — but that didn’t deter him from volunteer work, which to him was simply a logical progression from being in the newspaper business.

“I felt all those years doing that, I was doing a public service,” he told the Advance. “I guess I got it in my head that I should keep on doing it.”

That giving spirit led him to join the Creston Rotary Club — encouraged by William Mitchell-Banks — and contribute time to the organizations mentioned at the outset, as well as the home support board, the Save our Community Services Society and the Phoenix Restoration Society, even organizing and playing badminton until he was 89.

Eight years ago, he married Anne Page, also a tireless volunteer who was 1992’s citizen of the year. She describes him, Park related, as “a man that is generous with his time and his money” and as an “avid recycler”.

“One hesitates to even mention the significant disability that Peter has faced with such dignity his whole life but the grace which he has shown to so many of us that have initially struggled to understand him is a life lesson of its own,” Park concluded on Friday. “We are so fortunate that a cleft palate was not enough to silence a great man and that he has been patient enough to show us what a truly golden man he is.”

And Hepher can’t stress enough the need for others to get involved in the community in any way they can — for example, dozens of locals need help with affordable housing.

“That’s a prime example of the need for community work,” he said. “Nowadays, the community needs community organizations to meet the needs of other people. At the other end of it, it’s very satisfying.”