590 THE ADVOCATE
VOL. 80 PART 4 JULY 2022
Code to memory. It was the most amazing feat of memory I have ever seen.
I will never forget it.
During that year, Dick met Sandra Ball, also a resident of Acadia Camp.
Sandra was a beautiful redhead with a penetrating intelligence and a ready
wit.
Dick took a furlough from law school the following year to pursue both
Sandra and gainful employment. Sandra and Dick were married in Oliver
in June 1965. Dick later returned to the law and graduated from UBC law
school in 1969.
Everyone who knew Dick knew of his love for his family. The family
began when he and his wife Sandra moved to Penticton and into a Pan-
Abode house near Skaha Lake. Dick articled under the tutelage of Fred Herbert,
Q.C., at Boyle and Company, where he was to stay until his
appointment to the B.C. Supreme Court, resident in Kelowna, in January
2000. After a few years, the growing family moved to an old character house
on the bench to the east of Penticton that they renovated and named
“Brooke Hollow”. Sandra and Dick thrived as the parents of the three Brooke
boys: Brian, David and Christopher.
The great family years were those years while the boys were growing up
and Dick was establishing himself as a widely respected lawyer who competently
practised in all areas of the law. He became a stabilizing force at
Boyle and Company and at the bar. Dick was a congenial colleague. He took
a genuine interest in younger lawyers. He was a ready source of advice to
his partners, associates and others at the bar. Dick’s unfailing good nature
and sunny disposition led him to acquire a wide circle of friends from all
walks of life in Penticton.
He revelled in his growing family. Sandra established an innovative business—
The Pasta Stop—and introduced Penticton to the taste of pasta and
other Italian delicacies made properly.
At home in Brooke Hollow, three rambunctious boys grew up close to
nature. Penticton has many skunks. The boys devised a clever skunk trap
out of a garbage can and lid. If a skunk became overly curious about what
the garbage can contained, the skunk would find itself on a board that
tipped him into the garbage can. The open lid on the can would fall onto the
can and signal to any of the boys who saw or heard it that a skunk had been
trapped. A loud cry of “Skunk! Skunk!” would alert all the neighbourhood
boys to the event. They would come running. Dick would be alerted and all
boys present would jump in the box of Dick’s disreputable pickup truck.
The cab of the truck was always full of detritus and seemed to be held
together with dog hair. The garbage can and a long rope would be thrown in