October 23, 1929 - March 18, 2023
In loving memory~
The most wonderful man, friend and father.
Forever loved and never to be forgotten.
With heavy hearts, we are sad to say that Bob passed away in the Delta Hospital on Saturday, March 18th, with both his daughter Lynn and son-in-law Peter at his side at the wondrous age of 93. Words cannot express our feelings of deep loss. Comfort is taken in knowing that he left peacefully in his sleep. Many hearts are broken as there were so many people touched by Bob and his gentle, loving soul.
Bob was an icon in the community and lived in Wynndel until November 2015, which marked 85 years of his life. Bob built and contributed to the community and was partners in one of the largest independent mills in the Kootenays (Wynndel Box & Lumber), building subdivisions, leasing farmlands, privately financing businesses, while also helping friends and members of the community. He was well respected for his hard working, thoughtfulness, honesty and cheerful personality amongst all workers, friends and many others who were fortunate to meet him.
Bob was born in Wynndel, October 23, 1929 in his family home, during the start of the Great Depression. Bob's parents, Monrad and Rose Wigen, created a loving family. Bob had three siblings: his older brother Jack Wigen (deceased), his younger sister Donna Chorney and youngest brother Dick Wigen. In the early days, they lived in a small one-bedroom house.
Tough economic times were remembered by Bob when he was young. As a youth during the Depression, he worked his father's Box Company while also pursuing his own entrepreneurial endeavors. He delivered wood shavings and sawdust to homes and businesses during the cold winter to ensure that homes and buildings could be heated.
In 1959, Bob and his brother Jack acquired their father's Box Company by buying out their siblings Donna and Dick. They changed the name to "Wynndel Box & Lumber" and grew the company with specialty lumber products. Bob and Jack continued to diversify the company and it ultimately owned large amounts of rural land, tree farms, gravel pits and more. While Bob and Jack owned Wynndel Box & Lumber, each of the brothers started their own affiliated lumber companies.
Bob's company, Wynndel Logging Company, focused on supplying logs for the mill and leading the crews out to the forests to be logged. Bob was very proud of the fact that his father's company was a Wigen family business for 100 years. At its peak, it employed nearly 200 employees until it was eventually sold to Canfor. Bob worked in the family business into his 80's and had fond memories of fun, hard work, and getting to know most of the employees at the mill. He enjoyed sharing the prosperity the mill brought to their employees, families and the Creston Valley .
Bob's respect for his father and his love of the family business, kept him living close to the mill, so much so that he proudly lived on the mill property in Wynndel up until he was 85 years old. The home in which Bob raised his family had a ¼ acre garden that was his pride and joy. He was known for growing fresh fruits and vegetables. He enjoyed sharing them with many friends, mill workers and family; he even planted more so his brother Jack could give them to the Rotary Club members and many more families in Creston.
Bob was a very generous man and father. To continue the Wigen legacy in the Creston, Bob gave ownership and control of his logging company, and 50% of Wynndel Box & Lumber to his three children: Karen, Dave and Lynn.
His big heart, passion and integrity as a father were incredible. Bob's love for the business he helped create kept him working for more years to come, as he really looked forward to going to the office every day until 2011 when he was no longer able to do so.
Independently and in his spare time, Bob also successfully purchased land, built residential subdivisions and made other investments, which he shared much of the prosperity with his brother Jack.
At a young age, Bob earned his pilot's license and volunteered as a fire watch pilot. He also volunteered as an ambulance driver, with many interesting stories of driving patients from Creston to Cranbrook and Castlegar.
Bob had a love for Kootenay Lake and the family cabin at Cummings Resort. He would spend time there with family and friends, water skiing, fishing and boating. He also enjoyed golfing and curling. In the late 90s and until 2015, he spent time down south with the family in their Palm Desert home. There he would enjoy many games of golf and spending time with friends who came to visit from Creston, as well as making new friends.
Bob's "Trucker's Corner" at Jimmy's Pub in Creston was well known. It was there that he would meet with a dozen friends for a beer each day to tell stories and laugh. As life moved on, the name changed from "Truckers Corner" to "The Knowledge Network", to "Daddies Day Care," and eventually "God's Waiting Room". Bob always loved a good laugh and enjoyed spending time with his buddies. He is now with them all once again in heaven, as Bob was the last surviving member of that group of friends.
In 2016 at the age of 86, Bob left his hometown of Wynndel to move to the West Coast to be with his daughter Lynn and son-in-law Peter. In the small seaside town of Tsawwassen, he became well-known and admired in the community. After becoming newly single; he made the West Coast his new home. He was quickly embraced by the community; his quiet demeanor, enticing charm, tall handsome stature (some called him the 'silver fox') and his magnetic attraction, no doubt helped. At this age, he spoiled himself with buying his first new vehicle. Twice a week he would drive himself to his personal trainer for workouts, and to his weekly Crib tournaments at the local Kinsman Senior Center. Bob ultimately became the Kinsman Center organizer for the weekly Crib game with all of its responsibilities. He had a great passion for playing Crib with all of his new friends and family, often skunking and double skunking them. He kept his mind incredibly sharp right up until his passing, both recalling his life-long history vividly as well as taking on new challenges.
His love for the water at Kootenay Lake transformed to his love of the nearby coastal ocean waters to the Lower Mainland. There, he also enjoyed going for his daily walks along the beach or in his neighbourhood, which gave Bob the opportunity to chat with the neighbours and make new friends. Everyone knew Bob and loved him. He enjoyed ocean boating with friends, salmon fishing (in which he had great success) and loved feeding the ducks at many beautiful parks.
In Bob's twilight years, Lynn kept Bob's agenda filled with his mind, body and hands busy. Bob enjoyed his Sudoku, Word Search, daily mind and body exercise classes and played Pitch & Putt. He was enrolled in wood carving classes, art classes and found he was skilled at artwork. He made many incredibly beautiful calendars and sending them to over one hundred & fifty friends annually. This kept him in touch with many of his Creston friends, who he missed dearly. Bob also took up guitar lessons and had recently started Spanish lessons. He played the piano from distant memory of which surprised all on his 93rd birthday, along with his rapid recount of all the US states in alphabetical order in twenty-five seconds.
Bob loved to socialize with many of Lynn and Peter's friends on the West Coast, who had endless love for him. Many embraced Bob like their own father, filling his twilight years with much joy, love and great new memories.
In his down time, Bob looked forward to reading entertainment magazines, watching Dr. Phil and sports such as tennis, golf, UFC and catching up on his iPad with Facebook postings from friends. His weekly phone calls from his beloved sister Donna from Kelowna were always a highlight as he loved his sister so much. They enjoyed discussing the televised tennis tournaments, both recalling all of the names and scores from the matches. Up until his last two years, Bob continued to be a master gardener at their Tsawwassen home, even though that the new garden was only one-third the size of that of his Wynndel home, he still continued to proudly share his fruit and vegetables with his new neighbours and friends.
While on the coast, Bob still travelled back to Creston to visit his cherished friends, while stopping in Kelowna for many family gatherings with his loving sister and family. His sister Donna and her husband Ed, along with their children Cheryl, Jim and Suzanne, provided even more beautiful memories. Cheryl and her husband Blake came to visit him often and even surprised him with his sister Donna for his 92nd birthday.. He loved having a surprise visits from his brother Dick and sister in-law Vera. Bob also enjoyed the visits from several other friends that made the journey down to the West Coast to visit.
Bob never forgot his closest friends in Creston, including many of who passed over the years. He cherished the connections of his life-long friends, of which many joined him at Jimmy's Pub for his surprise 90th Birthday celebration. Lynn & Bob visited his school Prince Charles Secondary School and were surprised to see his graduation pictures on the wall. At that time, he and Lynn started a ten year legacy of $10,000 by each in bursaries towards post secondary education for a deserving daughter or son of Wynndel Box & Lumber mill worker, who could show financial need and academic achievement. This was inspired by Bob's difficult family financial upbringing following the Depression. Bob and his parents could not afford to send all siblings to a post-secondary school, yet Bob financed his Brother Jack's university education. Unfortunately there was not enough money for both of them to go to University. They created this bursary started in 2019 and were Bob's way of giving back to the families of workers of his former mill.
Bob laughed often, received love and gave much love right up until his passing. His daughter Lynn & son in-law Peter thoroughly enjoyed providing the care and love, for him and cherished the time they had together.
Bob leaves the world a better place because he was in it. He always looked for the best in others and gave the best back to those who did. We are immensely proud of this incredible man's accomplishments in the Creston Valley, especially with his former Wynndel Box & Lumber Company, his long history of great friendships developed here and on the Coast.
Bob also had a great fondness for Victoria, where he later spent much of his time with Peter's large Portuguese extended family. They instantly welcomed him into their family as one of their own. After the severity of Covid, the summer of 2022 allowed social plans to start safely resuming. With that came the highlight of Bob's life, being the proud father of the bride and walking Lynn down the aisle for their outdoor wedding. This brought much joy and pride to Bob, knowing how happy Lynn was and Bob gaining a much loved son-in-law Peter, along with the loving new grand-daughter Madison. At 93, after a joyous summer of celebrations, friends, close family and West Coast lifestyle, Bob truly felt loved, content and happy in his twilight years.
As the oldest surviving Wigen, Bob was truly a legacy to his Wigen family name. Despite his previous history of medical problems, he was called a "Miracle Man" by his incredible doctors in the Lower Mainland. At the age of 93, Bob was still "sharp as a tack" and thriving.
We hope that our dad's life and memories, like many long-living icons of Creston Valley, serve as an example to future generation; that a person's life is not measured by what you take from your friends and community during your lifetime, but measured by what you give back. As quoted by Ted Roosevelt, "Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care." We believe that this was the life that our dad lived and will be remembered for by his legacy.
We hope this is a reminder to all those who have elderly family members and friends, to celebrate their pasts and make as much time as possible to be part of their quieter, twilight years. Enjoy their company, as they have much love to offer and receive.
Lynn & Peter were blessed to have had their dad Bob fulltime with them for the last eight incredible years.
They are coming to Creston to host a private Celebration of Life in Creston to honour and pay tribute to their dad, by invite-only for close family and friends. (Bob requested before his passing to keep this celebration as a small, safe size).
Bob's Celebration of Life will be Tuesday, June 27th in the afternoon, with drinks, food, some tears and hopefully laughter. If you would like to attend, please email preferably to BobWigenCelebrationoflife@gmail.com, or call Lynn at 604-782-4282 and she will send you an RSVP invitation with all details.
In lieu of bereavement flowers, please make a tax deductable donation to the Bob Wigen Bursary for PCSS Students by cheque, mailed to School District No. 8 Kootenay Lake, 811 Stanley Street, Nelson, BC V1L 1N8. Or alternatively, payments can be accepted through their portal linked website: https://www.sd8.bc.ca./pay