bout de papier, Vol. 27, No. 1 (2012) — Winter 2012 // Hiver 2012, p. 31
Born in Montreal, October 15, 1920, died in Ottawa, Ontario March 12, 2012, aged 91.
“I hear you are going to Cuba,” Mike Pearson said to my father, Bob Cameron, as their streetcar rumbled down Rideau Street. It was 1948, when the Ottawa civil service was still a very small world. The Undersecretary of State for External Affairs travelled to work at the East Block on the streetcar, and played baseball on the weekend with his staff; Mike Pearson was first baseman, and Bob — a new hire — was one of the pitchers. Bob had heard nothing of a posting and thought there must be some mistake, but as soon as he got to the East Block, he learned that he should be prepared to leave in six weeks. This was the beginning of the overseas component of Bob’s 35-year adventure in the foreign service, one that spanned the darkest days of the Cold War, to the first stirrings of East-West détente.
Bob was the elder of two sons whose father died when Bob was ten years old. All of their mother’s love was poured into her two boys, and despite the trauma of losing his father so young, Sandy grew up with an unshakable self-confidence. This self-esteem never tipped over into arrogance — he just assumed that the majority of people he met would like him. And they did. This was an invaluable gift for a future diplomat.
After serving in the Canadian Army in the Second World War and graduating from the University of Toronto, Bob joined the Department of External Affairs in 1947, at an annual salary of $2,700. Following his return from Cuba, Bob was assigned to the European and Economic Divisions, and began to acquire the specialized knowledge of defence issues and East-West relations that helped shape his career. Over the years, Bob and his beloved wife Isobel represented Canada in Sweden, the United States and West Germany; their overseas service culminated in Bob’s appointments as Ambassador to Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Romania from 1974—77, and to Poland and East Germany from 1978—80. From 1981 to 1983, he served as Assistant Undersecretary of State with responsibility for International Security Policy and Arms Control Affairs.
However, while Bob and Isobel had many rewarding experiences as members of the foreign service, going where and when you were told was not an easy job, particularly since family was always extremely important to him. When he was in Washington in the mid-1960s, he was offered the opportunity to go to Vietnam as Canadian representative on the International Control Commission. It would have been a smart career move, but when the Department could not offer him sufficient assurances that his wife and children would be well taken care of should he not come back, he declined.
Not many of his colleagues knew that Bob was a gifted landscape painter, a talent that blossomed fully in his retirement. Nor that he was a fair snooker player. This dated back to his formative years in Perth, Ontario, where he perfected his skills with a cue in a pool hall above a local restaurant after school. Although Bob spent much of his life in cosmopolitan settings, an essential part of him was an unpretentious kid from a small town. And until very close to the end of his life, he was always on the lookout for a good snooker partner.
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Originally published in bout de papier, Vol. 27, No. 1 (2012) — Winter 2012 // Hiver 2012, p. 31. Read the rest of this issue →
