22 - Friday. Movember 20. 1998 - Nonh Shore News

In search of the fictic

@ Bill Schermbrucker
reading Tuesday, Now 24.
230 pam, at the C lapilane
branch of the North
Vancouver District Library.

John Moore

Contributing Writer
“THOSE who can,
write. Those who can‘t,
teach,” is a brickbat
often tossed at English
instructors, usually by
fractious young : aspir-
ing writers, eager to
run while their teachers
patiently attempt to
explain the mechanics
of walking.

If they're very lucky, such
students encounter a teacher
like Bill Schermbrucker, who
does both equally well, and
come away at least knowing
how to tie their shoes proper-
ly.

In 1968, Schermbrucker
literally “came in the with
plumbing” when Capilano
Colleue was founded. There
was a lot less plumbing in
those days of portable class-
rooms scattered on high
school campuses all over the
North Shore and seminars
held in borrowed church
meeting rooms, but ao one
who was a student at Cap in
those carly vears can ever for-
get the enthusiasm. energy

mb dedi rey
A ies athe de
barreled qot ot teachy !
erating brand new college
Bor many. i was ther first
tulltime teaching rob Ar 30,
the Kenvan born
Schermbrucker had pard his
duces, dead his BoA wt Cape
Town Latin ad bngtsh,
held vadous high school
teachmy positions ii Kenya,
moved ta BC,
and a teaching assistant
mremyhip at OBC. He and
his colleagues in the English
deparnment faced the daunt
ing drudgery of teaching end
less blacks of the English 100
composition course which
every university student,
regardless of discipline, needs
in order to write essays, as
well as broad “survey” cours-

es in English literature intend-

ed to give undergraduates 3
nodding acquaintance with
the literature of their mother
tongue.

Three decades later,
despite having served tours in
the bureaucratic trenches as
English coordinator, as
humanities division chairman
and held senior editorial posi-
tions on The Capilano
Review, Bill Schermbrucker

still retains the passionate love

of waching, (as opposed to
mere learning) that made hin:
one of those rare teachers vou
remember for the right rea-
SONS,

Tol lay fpecial, Soe a Gif to Remember
A Portrait

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to do his ALA.

Datel Pye had oc cisien to
talk to students taught by him
atthe Squamish campus anh
fast vear and thes woud all be
desertbing the fil
Schermbrucker Premember
tram thirty vears ago,

“Ethink the most eveiting
vears to teach: ire kinder
garten and first vear aniversi
ty when students are a hind
of tabula rasa’ he save, hay
ing voluntecred as a kinder
gartere assistant at Fromme
clementare in 199] when his
youngest daughter was a pre
schooler. Dashing to a book
shelt, he produces an album
of childrens’ tustrations and
letters, including his own
daughter's “Dear Mr.
Schermbrucker” note, thank-
ing him for helping to teach

them to read. He’s prouder of

that than of having ham-
mered into my hard head
some basic concepts of liter-
ary criticisms Pve been making
4 partial living off for wenty
years.

“It's wonderful to have
just one class of names to
remember now,” he says of
his current status as a part-
time instructer, a job he had
to audition for when he opted
for carly retirement this vear.
“Th was a little awkward. The
college had to post the job. 1

Margaret Easton.
stacks up
support for her
local library in
West Vancouver.

Margaret Easton loves to read. So it’s

sno surprise that she’s a big supporter

of her local library. The West Vancouver Memorial Library, the busiest in the
province, is one of the few in Canada to have its own fund raising Foundation.

hadi te apply hac ar other

candidate. fad te teal a
demonstra
jaded by Colleagues Pd
worked wath tor soars, which
embarrassed them, but when
UPS sand, Po think the college
was ritht to do ever vthing In
the book Aninstitunen ike
Capi Collese ait attord
To keep dead wood areund
One of the great adv astaies
of the vollege system isn't
only sation classes, but the
fact that studerts in these
crucial first Wo years are
more Likely te be taught bya
higher quahitied instructor
than thes would at large unt
versities where first and sec
ond vear courses may be
taught by junior instructors
or teaching, assistants.”
“Dead wood” isn't a
phrase he’s likely to find
spray-painted on his college
porking spot any time soon.
Still tam and athletic at 60,
he could revise his birth cer-
tifleate by a decade without

Phases and be

an argument, and if his teach-

ing load ts lighter it’s bal-
anced by redoubled writing
commitments. He published
short fection in magazines
during the *70s, culminating

nal truth

ia bis test condo tion.
thir
Newta, Patarbvaons
my TOSS. His then
rather un que “non
nowel

Chania woe

Melton”
Maruti,
HTalonbenoks + ted
lowed mye sears hater,
wumtng the behel
Wihon Privo tet
Kicneit in LOSS aid,
bke ative vear phin,
another collection,
Motortherapy o
Other Stortes
Clalonbookss
appeared in. 1993

I's 1998 and he’s
due fora book, but
More UMe to write
has inevitably ted to
proliferating, projects
and he’s got three in the
pipeline now, One novel,
Crostng Second Narraws, is
fictional, but set in the well-
recalled and closely researched
period of the late ‘60s, during
the controversial SFU teach-
ers’ strike and the infaney of
the community college move-
ment. The second is a kind of
parallel sequel to Mimosa,
which was based on the story
of his mother’s struggle to

SOLIBSWo0D

GHOUNDING 1S SHORTS;

NEWS photo Mike Wakefield

BILL Schermbrucker pionsered
the post-Kerouac sty!e of cre-
ative non-fiction.

find her own destiny ina
male-dominated world. This
ume he’s going after the men
in his family, a line of tough,
faciturn sun-bitten colonials,
miserly with words but whose
deeds are an essential part of
the modern history of Africa.
“My father was a great
believer in ‘disturi*, a
Kiswahili word which means

See Memory page V1

LS THE
FINISHING
TOUCHE

All Solid Wood
Moulding Shorts*

4.06r
Burnaby
294-6666

6150 Lougheed Hwy.

VANCOUVER * BURNABY
RICHMOND » LANGLEY

re in effect to 3:30 pm Saturday, Nov.

9 * Refers to all solid wood mouldings

four feet (4°) of tens exttading: turnber, Hinges
Joint-pine, floor moutdings

Besides drumming up two referees for the tournament and four co-workers
to enter as a team, Margaret successfully canvassed all of the member companies
of Royal Bank Financial Group to co-sponsor the tournament.

Margaret works for Royal Bank in West Vancouver. She’s just one of many

An annual croquet tournament is one of the Foundation’s biggest fund raising
efforts. The Foundation charges an entry fee for each team and a fee for on-court
advertising. In addition, the event includes a silent and live auction. This year,
the Foundation expects to have 24 teams participating and to bring in $24,000
for special programs such as computer labs and children’s reading rooms.

Royal Bank staff across Canada who take time out to help in their communities.
And we'd just like to take this opportunity to ROYAL BANK
thank them for doing what they do. FINANCIAL GROUP

® Registered trade mark of Royat Bank of Canad.
aio eee cen esceneeper _ . Imagine 9B 4 New Sprit of Commairnty