Interview of Ronald Reid

May 11 2012 Ronald Dunlop Reid (b. 1931 in Victoria, BC) is the only child of Kenneth Dunlop Reid (b. 1901) and Margaret Harriet Cullum (b. 1899 in Victoria, BC). His father was the eldest of two boys and his mother had one sister. They married in 1926; his mother stayed home with the children while his father worked for the Victoria street lighting department (prior to this job he had studied electrical engineering at McGill, worked in Ontario, for BC Electric in Vancouver, and for Cominco in Trail, BC). Ron’s father was very active in the Victoria Electrical Club, the McGill Graduate Society, Historical Society, and with the Freemasons (in 1958 he became the Grandmaster of British Columbia); his other interests were archery and fishing. Ron’s paternal grandfather, John Dunlop Reid (b. mid 1860s in Dunlop, Ayrshire) had one brother and two sisters and his paternal grandmother (b. 1879 in Owensboro, Kentucky; d. 1969) had one older sister who died at the age of sixteen in Seattle. John Dunlop Reid’s father, Thomas Reid (b. 1821) married Jane Dunlop, the heiress to property in the village of Dunlop and, together, they had three children. Their eldest son (also Thomas Reid whose eldest son married Mary Ann Kerr Jameson and moved to Owensboro, Kentucky, Seattle, Washington, and finally retired in Victoria, British Columbia) took over the farm while Thomas and Jane built a house on the Dunlop property with the help of their youngest son, John Dunlop Reid. John Dunlop Reid married Helen Muir of Kilmarnock; they had four children, the eldest of whom was Ron’s great-grandfather. There are no known Gaelic speakers in the family. Ron grew up in Victoria. Both of his parents were responsible for discipline. There were no vacations during the war, but afterwards, in 1945, his family toured Portland, the Oregon Coast, Washington State, and the Okanagan. His family was close and regularly saw each other; Ron’s favourite relative was his maternal grandmother who lived very close to him. Ron attended Sir James Douglas Elementary School, Central Junior High School, and Victoria High School before completing one year of college. Sir James Douglas was a “good elementary school,” but he neither enjoyed high school nor the sports. Ron worked for the mapping branch of the provincial government and the instructional department of the provincial emergency program (Civil Defense) before retiring in 1998. In 1954, Ron married his first wife, a nurse, Cora Jone Hansen (b. in Saskatchewan), with whom he had four children. After their divorce he married Kathleen, a widow with three children of her own. Between the two of them they have thirteen grandkids; their children are spread across North America, Asia, and Australasia. Since their respective retirements in 1998, Ron and Kathleen have travelled, bought a house, and taken up gardening, trailering (Vancouver Island, Interior BC, and the USA), and lawn bowling (Central Saanich team). Ron’s impetus for his “Scottishness” was his paternal grandmother who bought him his first kilt (at approximately ten years old). Ron and his wife, Kathleen, have made approximately twenty trips to Britain; her family lives near London and they have often made road trips up to Scotland. After being accidentally misled by the minister of the local church, they found the old Dunlop property on their second trip to the area. Their last trip to Scotland was ten years ago (2000). Ron does not closely follow Scottish politics, but when asked about the upcoming referendum, Ron is not sure whether Scottish separation is a “good thing.” Ron has lost connections to any remaining Scottish relatives. He enjoys reading books by M.C. Beaton. If Ron were to relive his life, he would not change anything; he is “very happy with it.” His biggest satisfaction in life is retirement; he enjoyed his job, but “it has been nice to leave a structured working environment.”

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