Tribute

FOOTE, Charles David
Aug. 02, 1942 – Jan. 14, 2022
It is with shattered hearts that we announce the peaceful passing of our dad David, on Jan. 14 at home following a lengthy illness.  He leaves behind his beloved daughters Christine, Stacey (Terry) and Sherri (Scott); his grandchildren Jessica (Mike), Brooke (Slater), Jack and Regan; sister Marilyn and a large extended family. Dad was predeceased by the love of his life, Bev.  Dad was born in Mission, and spent his childhood and early life in Silverdale.  Having married and become parents at a young age, Mom and Dad faced many challenges, but met them head-on together. In 1975 he made Abbotsford his home, where he resided until his passing. Dad was a humble man who didn’t like to talk much about what he accomplished in his lifetime, but we had the gift of learning more about these things during this last year and a half of helping care for him. What is most surprising is that he achieved so much with minimal formal education – he was almost exclusively self taught.  At a very young age, he taught himself carpentry and woodworking, creating furniture for family and friends. While working full time, he also worked late into the nights to build a house in Silverdale for his young family – a house for which he also drew up the plans himself. He worked his way up into management in the building supply industry (becoming the General Manager at Mid Valley Lumber in Langley) and during this time, he also developed software for the first ever point of sale system in the industry and created the concept for pre-hung doors, revolutionizing the door industry. He also assisted as a campaign manager, helping to elect Neville Cox as the mayor of Mission. Later in life, he changed course (due to illness) and created a successful picture framing business with mom (Bev’s House of Frames). He was also a deacon in the United Church when he was young, studied for and passed his real estate exam, and built a cabin at Dominic Lake where he could relax, fish and spend time with his family. His strong work ethic began at a very young age – to help support his family and his love of cars!  His first job at the age of 8, was an 8-mile round trip paper route which paid him next to nothing. At the age of 12, he began working nights in the Davidson Mill. Enterprising and entrepreneurial, he was fearless in his endeavours and despite a few devastating setbacks, he never gave up. Dad described himself as shy, but he also had a very playful and mischievous side, getting into all kinds of shenanigans from the time he was young. Some of the stories left us shaking our heads in amazement; not only at the craziness, but because he somehow survived them all! He aimed a shotgun out his bedroom window in the middle of the night to scare a dog away from his chickens (but ended up scaring his family more, by awakening them from the blast). At the age of 10, he purchased a “huge-ass 2 person chain saw” so that he could cut down trees to sell firewood; the very first tree he fell hit a hydro line, sparks flew and so did he! He hid the chainsaw in the bush and somehow never got blamed for the incident. At 14, he bought dynamite to try to blow up a big granite rock in his backyard because he figured the rock was puncturing the tires on his car he was driving around the yard and because “he wanted to hear a big boom”. As a teen, he somehow avoided trouble while speeding around town with his friends in his prized ‘55 Chevy. In his twenties, he was part of the Kinsmen service club, and recalled fond stories of their crazy antics: cutting the top off a Plymouth cruiser to create a Bat Mobile, and when a fellow member required help moving, the “Kinsmen Moving Company” would show up unannounced at their house at midnight, wake them up, sling the occupants over their shoulders and perform the whole move in the middle of the night. Over the course of his life, Dad used up many of his nine lives: the abovementioned dynamite and chain saw; driving himself to the hospital with a broken leg and the next day driving a forklift at the mill with a plaster cast on his leg; twice surviving electrical shock while standing on a metal ladder. He also survived a near-death experience with a critical illness, and survived many surgeries and more recently, 2 serious car accidents. His fighting spirit and love of family is what kept him going; one of his doctors nicknamed him “Miracle Man” because of this.  Several years ago, Dad and Mom purchased a piece of property at the Surfside RV resort in Parksville, which became their home away from home – their “Maui North”. Countless memories were made there with their children and partners, grandchildren, extended family and Island friends. He loved long beach walks with Mom, mini-golf, playing crib, and even took his grandkids on bumper boats and go carts! He taught each of them many life lessons, including how to ride a bike, drive a car, and spent many hours reading bedtime stories. The grandchildren looked up to Mom and Dad as role models and best friends. Dad lived his life with kindness, compassion for others and above all, love for his family.  Dad was a mentor to so many, in part due to an extensive knowledge in such a wide variety of subjects. He was a voracious reader and consumer of all forms of news (papers, tv, radio) – he was essentially the internet before such a thing existed. He could call to mind the answer to any problem or know how to fix just about anything and as such, he was the go-to guy when people needed help. We will all miss having him as our advisor. His last piece of advice to us all was to love and take care of each other, and to continue to make family parties and gettogethers a priority. He wanted to ensure that Mom and Dad’s legacy of “family first” would live on.  We miss you dad, but will carry your spirit with us always.  In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Dad’s memory to the B.C. Children’s Hospital.