March 21, 1922 - December 24, 2011

Husband and father, golfer, lawyer, contrarian, cook, golfer, reader, airman, lover of trees, grower of tomatoes, golfer, fraud-buster and all-round force of nature . . . Bob died peacefully on Christmas Eve well into his 90th year. Child of a BC frontier marriage of two characterful parents, he was born in Princeton to Diana Quenville, a young nurse from a French-Canadian ranching family in the Nicola Valley, and Harry ìRegî Plommer, a young Englishman (and future mining executive and Howe Street highroller) stationed at Copper Mountain.

Growing up in Vancouver, Bob attended Magee high school with older brother Bill, fell in love with golf as a junior at Shaughnessy, and was at UBC when the Second World War beckoned. A natural navigator, he completed a full tour of ops over Germany and occupied France with RCAF 432 Squadron under Bomber Command while between times fitting in numerous rounds of golf back at base in Yorkshire. Called to the BC bar in 1948, he practised throughout his Vancouver legal career with Douglas, Symes & Brissenden, becoming the firmís lead counsel, as formidable in the courtroom pursuing fraudsters on behalf of the Crown as he was on fairways at his home club of Capilano in West Vancouver (seniorsí club champion four times), and across Canada, the USA and the United Kingdom. He was proud of winning the BC Amateur (1946) and the Shaughnessy club championship twice, and of repeated forays at the British Amateur, the Canadianís Menís Senior and the British Senior Amateur (placed 5th with the lowest single round of the tournament at Walton Heath in 1983, and the same year won the Canadian Seniors Golf Association championship at Royal Montreal). But mostly, he loved playing great courses, among which he ranked his other home club, Rivershore in Kamloops. Bobís adversarial weaponry was also wielded in personal campaigns. These included fighting a proposed West Van bylaw requiring trees to be topped at a certain height, and helping to kill the Burrard Inlet third-crossing project of 1970-72 by means of a long and scathing polemic in The Vancouver Sun.

Among his favourite things were: A perfect poached egg, his family, saying what he thought (advisedly or otherwise), Sunday morning on the 1st tee, prawn tempura, the stock ticker, ferns, historical biography, the highways and byways of western North America, Dr Zhivago, splitting wood with a wedge, almond chicken, the Old Course at Troon, Fareed Zakaria on world affairs, watching Canadian football with ìan icy cold rum & Cokeî, Japanese-inspired architecture (particularly Fred Hollingsworthís), avocado, socialism early in life, capitalism later in life, How Green Was My Valley, lovely old dog Frank and many great cats, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. Things viewed with disfavour included: A cold dinner plate, beards, Larry King, unsalted vegetables, conmen and quacks, women who talk through their noses, Tiger Woods, Canadian airlines serving European wine, the phrase ìin terms ofÖî, overpopulation, media use of the word ìreticentî when ìreluctantî is meant, people wearing hats in houses, academics.

Bob is survived by his second wife Sybil, daughter Leslie, sons Hamish (Janet), Evan (Christy), Tim (Vanessa) and grandchildren Matthew, Maxie (Lucy), Emily, Hart, Will, Jacoba, Alexandra and Jack. Our family thanks Dr. Kathleen Bell-Irving for her kind and professional care of Bob. A Celebration of Bobís life will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, 4 February at Capilano Golf & Country Club. If attending, kindly confirm number to splommer@shaw.ca. A donation to the BC Lung Association is suggested, if you wish: a long-time smoker, Bob had quit.