Longtime North Cowichan councillor and mayor Tom Walker died Friday morning.
First elected to council in 1991, Walker was mayor from 2008 to 2011. He also served as chair of the Cowichan Valley Regional District for three terms.
Former Mayor Al Siebring was among the dozens of friends who quickly expressed sorrow at the loss of a man often referred to as a mentor.
“Tom was definitely a mentor to me,” Siebring wrote on Facebook. “I served my first council term under his mayorship. And his guidance came far more by what he did than what he said.”
Current North Cowichan councillor Tek Manhas also called Walker a political mentor.
“Tom was a former forester and was instrumental in North Cowichan’s forestry program,” Manhas noted.
After a four-decade career in the forest industry, including 35 years working for the BC Forest Service and a period as district manager of the Duncan Forest District, Walker retired but never lost his passion for the industry.
He was chair of North Cowichan’s Forest Advisory Committee and one of the six founding members of the Forest Committee in the early 1980s. In 2018, the Forest Legacy and Bursary Scholarship was renamed the Tom Walker Forest Legacy Bursary Scholarship.
In 2018, Walker received The Freedom of the Municipality, an honour bestowed upon distinguished persons in recognition and appreciation of their long and faithful public service. His dedication in many civic, community and professional groups over the years, was noted at the time He was involved as a president, a director or a member in many organizations including past president of Cowichan Valley Crimestoppers, BC Forest Discovery Centre and Duncan Rotary Club; former director of Cowichan Valley Basket Society and Clement Center Society, as well as founding member and past president of the Cowichan Valley Probus Club.
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