Page 6 All we knew from the telephone message was that an estate was being settled and that if the Historical Society was interested, it should send someone along to the house on Haywood .... which is how Hugh Johnston and David Wilson got to meet Jane Gilchrist and how, soon after, thanks to Jane, a number of wonderful things settled into their new home at the Gertrude Lawson House. What was the story behind these acquisitions? Coloured slides from the mountain; three antique cameras; darkroom equipment galore; piano tuning tools and the customers' records; a seat from the original Hollyburn Chair Lift (now with the Parks Board awaiting restoration). Who was this person who had mapped the cabins and trails of Hollyburn Ridge and with the help of an altimeter, meticulously noted every elevation? Who was this person who had painstakingly constructed a reflecting telescope from a kit and accomplished goodness knows what else? We would wait months for the answers to our questions, wait until the day when an article from the Oct. 1989 journal of the B.C. Archaeological Society surfaced and then , at last, we would come to know Moira Irvine. Now, with the kind permission of the Editor of "The Midden" and the author, we are pleased to reprint Don Bunyan's tribute to a remarkable woman. Moira - an Appreciation She was a very private person - warm, friendly, and generous, but nonetheless guarded her privacy and remained true to herself. As a co-worker, Moira Irvine was invaluable; as a friend, she is forever irreplaceable. Our friendship seemed almost casual, based on common interests and quirky senses of humour, and a shared love of music and good writing. Yet, and yet ...it seems I mourn her death more than I mourned the deaths of closer, longer-known, more-tested friends. Moira was unique and her dying leaves a unique void in my affections . Moira Irvine was born on Sunday March 9, 1941, in Calgary, Alberta. She died of cancer on Sunday June 11, in North Vancouver's Lions Gate Hospital. Her parents came from the United Kingdom, her mother from England and her father from a remote island off the coast of Scotland. They immigrated to Canada independently and both came to Calgary, where she worked as a secretary and he worked for a large insurance company. In Calgary, both joined the Alpine Club of Canada and met as fellow members in 1937; they were married the same year. In 1942, his employers transferred George Irvine to the Vancouver area. They bought and moved into the then 20-year-old house at 1565 Haywood Avenue in West Vancouver, where they lived until they died, and where Moira lived, with two short absences, until she died. Moira's interest in history and antiquities, her pleasure in doing things with her own hands, and her independence showed up at an early age. As a child, she made a suit of armour, in which she fought many mock battles with the son of the neighbours. The remnants of her tinplate and cardboard creation are still to be found in the basement of the house on Haywood Avenue. Although bright in school, she hid her light and drew no attention to herself. A former class-mate reports that in high school, Moira kept herself so inconspicuous as to be almost invisible. Even so, she graduated in the Accelerated Academic Program from West Vancouver Senior Secondary School, in 1958. Four years later she graduated from UBC, with a BA in Anthropology. Her term paper written at the end of the archaeological field school, was entitled "The Antler Industry at Musqueam Southeast."