Don Wright was a photographer and writer for the BCIT student newspaper the Link from 1976 (while a student at BCIT) until the 1980s after graduation. A long-time Vancouver resident, Wright is currently the Regional Activism Coordinator for Amnesty International.
Vickers was born on the Nass River but raised in Kitkatla, Hazelton, British Columbia, and Victoria, B.C. His father was a fisherman who was matrilineally Tsimshian, also with Haida and Heiltsuk ancestry. His mother was a schoolteacher whose parents had emigrated from England and who was in the 1940s adopted into the Eagle clan at Kitkatla, B.C. (making Roy also Eagle). His grandfather was a Kitkatla canoe-carver. The paintings and works that he has created reflect this mixed heritage as his work has many elements of the traditional art of the First Nations peoples of the Pacific Northwest, but remains quite distinctive.
Vickers became interested in Northwest Coast art partly under the influence of the anthropologist Wilson Duff.
His work has been the official gift of the Province of British Columbia to visiting foreign leaders several times. In 1987 the original of his painting A Meeting of Chiefs was the official gift to Queen Elizabeth II and in 1993 artist's proofs of his print The Homecoming were the Province's gift to Bill Clinton and Boris Yeltsin.
Vickers has been the artistic advisor to several events in British Columbia. In 1994 he was the artistic advisor to the architects and designers of the 1994 Commonwealth Games. For the Games Vickers also created more than 20 totem poles. Also, from 1987 to 1995, Vickers was the artistic advisor for the Vancouver International Airport's new terminal. Some of his work is prominently displayed there for travellers to admire.
Once a substance abuser, in 1992 he created VisionQuest, a non-profit organization designed to help individuals with addictive personalities.
Fernando Vachon was born June 13, 1912, in St. Marie Beauce, Quebec. He was the youngest of four brothers (Romeo, Irénée, Donat) known for their contributions to the history of aviation in Canada. From 1948 to 1977, he worked for Canadian Pacific Airlines (CP Air) in Vancouver as maintenance supervisor, quality control supervisor, instructor, and inspector. From 1979 to 1985, he taught Aircraft Maintenance at the Pacific Vocational Institute in Richmond. Vachon’s achievements include the invention of a system to enable the parking of ski-equipped aircraft in hangars with concrete floors, the design of a system to detect communication failures, and the construction of a hemodialysis machine. He died January 14, 2005, in Richmond.
Thom was born in Maple Creek, Saskatchewan and spent most of his school years in Picture Butte, Alberta. He moved to Vancouver to attend UBC in 1951. He graduated with his B.Comm. in 1956 and remained close with his graduating class. Gordon was a member of the Sigma Chi Fraternity.
Gordon married Helen in the fall of 1956 and moved to Northern BC to start his work with Imperial Oil. In 1958, he attended the University of Maryland to obtain his MBA and then returned to work for Imperial Oil. He and Helen returned to Vancouver in the spring of 1959. In 1962, he started a new path and began working for the UBC Alumni Association, where he worked from 1962 to 1966. He also began his M.Ed. at night at UBC and completed it in 1971.
He and his family had settled into Dunbar when he began his long and cherished career at the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT). He joined as Vice-Principal of Continuing Education, holding that role from 1966 to 1974 and became President in 1974, continuing in that role until 1985. He was very proud of the designated title of President Emeritus, which was granted to him by the Board of Governors in 1985.
From 1987 until his retirement in 1999, Gordon worked with the Sterling Group and Clifford Group. Gordon served on the UBC Senate from 1972–81 and 1987–1993, acted as the President of the Association of Canadian Community Colleges 1980–81, and Vice– Chair of the Vancouver Board of Trade from 1985–86.
An Advisory Council, made up of industry executives, recruited E. Cecil Roper from the Faculty of Commerce at UBC as the first Principal of BCIT. Roper, trained as a mining engineer, had earned an MBA after 20 years in the mining industry. Well connected to the world of B.C. industry, and equally well connected at UBC, Roper was able to attract faculty and staff from both arenas to work and volunteer for BCIT in its earliest days.