Good father and husband, good sailor, good man. Born May 31, 1957, in Dumfries, Scotland. Died Dec. 9, 2010, in Calgary of a heart attack, aged 53.
Richard Burns was born in Scotland in 1957. He was the first of four children for our parents, Ann and Bob.
We moved to Canada when Richard was 8 and attended school in Cornwall and the Niagara region. Richard distinguished himself over those formative years both athletically and academically. In junior high, Richard was selected the best all-round boy for his balance of sports, academics and other extra-curricular activities, and this theme continued throughout his life.
As an athlete, Richard was an accomplished distance runner, cross-country skier and sailor, winning many awards.
Richard and I began sailing competitively together when we got our first boat at the ages of 8 and 9. This was the beginning of more than 10 years when we spent our summers and some winter vacations attending various sailboat regattas, and even building a boat one winter when Richard and I were 15 and 16 years old.
At the University of Western Ontario, Richard received his degree in political science in 1978 and then followed it up at Simon Fraser University with an IT degree. After graduation he worked in and around Vancouver for a while, but moved to Calgary to work as an IT consultant in the oil and gas and transportation sectors. It was here that he was destined to meet Susan Belcher.
At Western, one of Richard's best friends was Scott Morgan. Scott and Richard sailed, ran and skied their way through university. Scott's girlfriend, Laurie, later his wife, was in engineering at Queen's University. Her best friend, also in engineering, was Susan Belcher. Despite this connection, Richard wasn't to meet Susan until 1988 in Calgary - and then only at the repeated encouragement of Scott and Laurie, who lived in Montreal.
When he did finally meet Susan, they hit it off, and I believe they talked the night away on their first date. Scott and Laurie were the first to realize this was serious when they found out that Richard had let Susan drive his coveted '67 Porsche.
Susan took a while to convince that he was the one for her, and after a few proposals finally accepted his offer of marriage while hiking on a ski hill in Fernie, B.C. in the summer of 1992. Apparently it was a bit of a challenge for Richard to get down on bended knee at the time since cows had left warm, fresh evidence of their passing along the trail. His efforts were rewarded and they proceeded to plan for a quick wedding less than two months later.
Susan and Richard went on to have two great children. Erin arrived first in the world and Fiona came along two years later. Both Erin and Fiona have grown to be beautiful women, talented athletes and academically very strong. The influence of Richard and Susan are easy to see in them both.
Over the past few years when I talked to Richard, his pride in their accomplishments was clearly heard in his voice, and life evolved around his love for his girls and keeping them busy and happy in a stream of activities.
The loss to my parents, my brother and sister, myself and our families is great, but the loss to Richard's girls, Susan, Erin and Fiona, is far greater. He was an integral part of their lives and he was happiest when the girls were happy; and he took an active part in their day-to-day lives - with all their pursuits, interests and accomplishments.
To end with a quote from Thomas Moore: "And soon, too soon, we part with pain, To sail o'er silent seas again."
By Robert Burns, Richard's brother.