Her natural habitat was the corporate world––a BC Businesswoman of the Year, executive or director or chair of national and international forestry and healthcare corporations and companies, a global life of board meetings, airports, and hotels, a large extended family with roots in southwest Ontario and branches everywhere, an avid collector of European travel experiences, particularly with family in Holland and friends in Switzerland.
Ida Goodreau also wanted to be a local, immersed in local concerns and she’d years ago chosen to be a local of Bowen Island. She wanted her last sight to be the view from her cozy Millers’ Landing cottage but the pancreatic cancer was too efficient to permit that. She died on Monday in Vancouver surrounded by her four sisters.
It was impressive that she found time to care about Bowen seniors by joining the board of the Snug Cove House Society and doubly impressive that she put such a quantity of her customary intensity, wide-ranging expertise and alarmingly incisive intellect into the dream for a supportive seniors’ residence on the island. The residence is not yet built but she survived long enough to see the plans submitted to the municipality for an initial assessment.
Her fellow Snug Cove House board members are devastated by her absence and infinitely grateful for the achievements and memories of her very substantial presence.
