424 THE ADVOCATE
VOL. 78 PART 3 MAY 2020
In the late 1950s, Bryony Gray from New Zealand was travelling the
world with a friend. The two young women stopped for a time in Vancouver,
and Bryony took a secretarial job at Guild Yule, as it was commonly referred
to, where she met Bud. The two were married in Vancouver on July 29,
1961. They had three children: Kathryn, Marisa and Douglas. Bud’s mother
wanted Douglas to be named Harold the Third, but Bud refused.
Almost all of Bud’s legal work at Guild Yule was insurance litigation, on
the defence side. Bud had a quick analytical mind and could cut to the core
of an issue right away. His opinions and advice were concise and to the
point. He did not generally go to court but would manage a great many files
through all the pre-trial steps, and if a case did not settle, he would pass the
file on to Frank Collier (later Collier J.) (or Uncle Frank, as he was known
to Bud and his family) or other counsel at the firm. Another restriction on
taking out-of-town trials was Bud’s aversion to flying. On the odd occasion
when the Cranbrook or Prince George civil assize beckoned (always in winter)
on a file that the client insisted Bud personally take to trial, the Friday
afternoon scramble was on for an available articling student with a current
driver’s licence and a vehicle with snow tires.
In 1976, as part of an early attempt in the legal profession to promote
work/life balance, Guild Yule instituted a sabbatical program for partners.
Bud was the initial taker. He and his family went, by ship of course, to New
Zealand for six months. They returned to Vancouver, but after only two
years, Bud announced that he was moving to New Zealand to take up teaching
at the University of Victoria in Wellington. That was the end of the Guild
Yule sabbatical program. However, the move proved to be short-lived and
the family returned to Vancouver in 1980. A professor’s salary in New
Zealand was apparently insufficient to support Bud’s accustomed living
expenses.
Bud, perhaps with the persuasion of Hamish Cameron, joined Bull
Housser on his return. Bud tended to call Hamish when he was looking for
work in the legal world. Bull Housser had recently lost their leading counsel,
Bill Esson and Bae Wallace, to the bench and they needed a senior barrister.
Bud took this on and his practice became more commercial in nature, doing
trial and appellate work for the commercial clients of the firm including the
Royal Bank of Canada. Bud seemed to associate himself with lawyers who
made their way to the bench, from his colleagues at Guild Yule such as Ted
Hinkson, Lance Finch, Ken Mackenzie, Ron Holmes and John Truscott to
the lawyers in his department at Bull Housser: Jon Sigurdson, Victoria Gray,
Jane Dardi, Marvyn Koenigsberg and Loryl Russell. Bud was a wonderful
and much-loved mentor to all the younger lawyers he worked with at Bull