Bob Church was an Alberta man for all seasons
Innovator, educator, genetics expert was unofficial global ambassador for Alberta
I initially came to know Bob Church over the telephone.
He’d call me after reading one of my columns, we’d share a few laughs and I would almost always glean an enormous amount of knowledge from this man for all seasons, who was the founding professor and head of the department of medical biochemistry in the faculty of medicine at the University of Calgary from 1969 to 1983.
It didn’t really matter what topic we talked about, it seemed Bob could tell a story or provide detailed information about it or how he helped found it, chair it, help it or conceive it. I’d often check out his claims and, sure enough, some mention of Dr. Robert B. Church would be mentioned — be it in agriculture, the Calgary Stampede, medicine, genetics, environmental issues — you name it, Bob was involved.
Like most people who knew him — and they are legion — I found Bob so interesting, I invited him out to lunch — not something I regularly do with strange men, if ever — and asked him to bring his curriculum vitae, which is 26 pages long.
A strikingly handsome man in faded jeans, boots and a beat-up cowboy hat showed up, when I was expecting a doctor in a suit. We must have talked for three hours — the entire restaurant emptied out but for us and the patient staff — as he regaled me with stories from his remarkable life that began on a farm in Balzac, to lecturing around the world — including in the Soviet Union — mostly in animal biochemistry, genetics and experimental and molecular embryology. He eventually invited me to his ranch, Lochend Luing, in the foothills west of Airdrie, that he operated from 1974 until his son recently took over, where he did his chores with passion and gusto, pointing out special features in his beloved cattle and horses.
I had planned to write about this remarkable Renaissance Man, but the urgency of news events pulled away my attention, his resume got buried in a stack of papers and I never got it done.
Sadly, I am doing it now, after Church died Friday at the age of 82 following a bout with pneumonia.
His son, Jeffrey Church — a professor of economics at the U of C where his dad made such a profound impact as a professor and associate dean of research in the faculty of medicine (1981’88) and as the assistant dean of medical sciences (1990-’92) — says his father provided him and his sister, Eileen, with many mind-expanding opportunities of travelling the world as kids and instilling, both explicitly and implicitly, an appreciation for education that led to both of them obtaining Phds. And that love of learning has surely penetrated, epigenetically, the DNA of all three of Bob’s grandchildren — Reid, Richard and Elizabeth — all of whom are pursuing graduate programs at university.
Jeffrey says his dad had planned to simply be a farmer and a rancher, but the trajectory of his life changed for the better when tragedy struck. During the summer before Grade 12, when Bob was just 17, “he got run over by a two-tonne grain truck, right over his midsection. He was hospitalized for five months and doctors told him he would never be able to ride a tractor all day long with his injuries.”
After missing so much school, his Grade 12 marks were terrible. He attended Olds College and was admitted on probation into the University of Alberta’s Faculty of Agriculture, where he thrived academically but was known for pulling practical jokes.
“At U of A he did crazy things. The engineers and the aggies had this rivalry. Engineers were having their annual ball and he got my mother (Joyce Brown) to smuggle in pigeons that had been treated with a laxative and they let them go during the ball. He always had that let’s-have-some-fun attitude in the midst of all of his accomplishments.”
“My dad’s life goes to prove that sometimes getting hit by a two-tonne truck is a blessing in disguise,” says Jeffrey.
After postgraduate studies at the U of A and at the University of Uppsala in Sweden, he obtained his doctorate from the Institute of Animal Genetics in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1965. He went on to be a founding member of the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council, the Medical Research Council of Canada and many others, served on numerous corporate boards, was president of Church Livestock Consultants, all while volunteering for 20 years at the Calgary Stampede before becoming president in 1989. During those years, he helped establish 4-H on Parade, the youth talent contest, the world’s first formal “bucking horse” breeding program and was the director responsible for reorganizing the committee to represent Treaty 7 Nations, earning him the honour of being named Chief Black Eagle of the Treaty 7 Tribes. He is also a Member of the Order of Canada and the Alberta Order of Excellence.
This covers up to page two of his curriculum vitae.
In short, Bob was an innovator, educator, genetics expert, scientist, pioneer, entrepreneur, lifelong learner, mentor, husband, father, grandfather, friend and unofficial Alberta ambassador all over the world.
Longtime friend Dr. David Chalack, a veterinarian and international sales manager with Alta Genetics Inc., says Bob travelled so extensively at the invitation of universities and symposiums to discuss gene and embryo manipulation in animals the now-defunct CP Airlines twice awarded him their most frequent flyer.
“When I travel for business, Japan or wherever, when people hear I’m from Calgary, someone in this line of business inevitably asks if I know Bob Church. When they hear he’s my good friend you should see the smiles,” says Chalack. “It’s been my great fortune to have known Bob Church.” Mine, too.
A celebration of Bob Church’s life will be held Sept. 19 at Foothills Alliance Church at 1:30 p.m.