bout de papier, Vol. 9, No. 3 (1992) — Summer 1992 // Été 1992, p. 33
Members of the Department of External Affairs were deeply saddened by the unexpected news of the death on Saturday, 7 March 1992, of Bob Grauer, one of our finest officers.
Bob joined the Department in 1972 and served with great distinction throughout his career with postings in New York, Yokohama (language training), and Tokyo. Bob was one of the Department’s brightest and most dynamic officers. He was a gifted economic policy advisor who had been Director of both the Economic Relations with Developing Countries Division (EEA) and the International Economic Relations Division (EER) at EAITC
During the past two years, Bob had been working in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) as Deputy Chief of Staff to the Prime Minister. Bob was slated to become the Deputy High Commissioner at our High Commission in London this summer. In a statement and through challenging times. He served his country faithfully and skillfully. Mila and I came to know him as a friend and we issued by the PMO, the Prime Minister said, “Bob was a consummate professional, on whose advice I relied for several years will miss him. We have extended to his widow, Leslie, and two children our deepest condolences.”
The funeral, held in Ottawa at St. Matthias Anglican Church, was well attended by many of Bob’s friends and associates with whom he had worked during his career in the Foreign Service. Eulogies were delivered by the Prime Minister and by the Under- Secretary, Mr. Reid Morden.
The Prime Minister spoke eloquently about Bob’s contribution to the Government during his time in the PMO and he spoke warmly about the close friendship that he had enjoyed with Bob. The Prime Minister presented Leslie Grauer with the Canadian flag from the Parliament Buildings that was flying the day Bob died
Mr. Morden, who had served with the Grauers in New York and Japan, paid a moving tribute to Bob and commemorated his special place in the Foreign Service family.
Jim Wright
Director
Political/Economic Personnel
bout de papier is honoured to print below the text of the speaking notes for Mr. Morden’s oral eulogy on that sad occasion.
– Editor
“Speaking with two hats.— as Under- Secretary and as a friend; I am not going to describe in any detail Bob’s great capabilities as an officer. They are well-known to you all and I need not repeat them.
“Rather — let me recall that Canada’s Foreign Service has a long and proud tradition of service to the Government and people of Canada. Bob was part of that tradition – and through him that tradition has been strengthened.
“Also — members of the Foreign Service do not work for it; they are part of it; it is part of them — and we are all, in that sense, family.
“We are happy that the Prime Minister borrowed Bob to serve the wider needs of government — and serve them well he did — but here today we would claim a part of him back — and in so doing say to Leslie, Peter and Britta how deeply we care about our own and that you remain very much a part of the family.
“What I hope those present today will take away are our memories of Bob as a friend.
“Margaret and I first encountered the Grauers almost twenty years ago. Always the pioneers — Bob and Leslie – and it was just Bob and Leslie – broke new ground in moving further north in New York City than anyone. They both jumped into the kaleidoscope of activity that constitutes life in the “Big Apple” with the verve we’ve all known of the Grauers.
“However, for many here today, Japan was the spot where we formed really close friendships with Bob and Leslie. (The Steers and Mona Rankin between them cover off, as residents of Marler House [the official residence of the Canadian Ambassador in Tokyo] — all of Bob’s time in Japan).
“I think first of Bob struggling with his Japanese kanji cards while at school in Yokohama. I think of him while still at the rudimentary stage of language training and with his very young family challenging the Japanese rural train and bus system to visit us at the seaside — and succeeding.
“Bob spent five years in Japan and had a wonderful appreciation of that country — its competitive spirit, its history, its food. I am told there is a chair at a sushi restaurant in Akaska that bears his name. His Revelstoke roots gave him a love of mountains and in Japan he and his family climbed to the top of Mount Fuji in the off-season – unthinkable to the Japanese.
“Unorthodox — yes, but coupled with his Japanese language skills, Bob was a compelling and attractive figure for the Japanese who responded to his warmth and energy with friendship both for himself and for Canada.
“Some here today will also have known Bob since his return to Canada in 1982 when he became an important part of the Department’s economic fabric and above all in G-7 [economic] summitry.
“No matter where we have encountered Bob — we take away our particular memories of him. However, I am confident that we will all come together in remembering the essence of the man.
– He had enthusiasm.
– He had an enquiring and powerful mind.
– He worked as he played — at full throttle and with total commitment.
– He had a capacity for friendship from which we all come away enriched – today and for the years ahead.”
Reid Morden Under-Secretary of State for External Affairs
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Originally published in bout de papier, Vol. 9, No. 3 (1992) — Summer 1992 // Été 1992, p. 33. Read the rest of this issue →
