Advocate Jan 2014

THE ADVOCATE VOL. 72 PART 1 JANUARY 2014
115
NOS DISPARUS
By R.C. Tino Bella
Arthur Morrell Harper, Q.C.
Arthur Harper was born in Vancouver on February
17, 1914, to Andrew Miller Harper and Ellen Redgrave
Harper. Unlike the majority of British
Columbians, Arthur lived his whole life here, with
the exception of the war years. As he was the
youngest of three children and the only son in the
family, he was introduced to the principles of fairness
and reason in dispute resolution, which were to guide him all his life.
Arthur’s father, Andrew, who was a graduate of Queen’s University, moved
to Vancouver in 1906 to article with well-known lawyer Joe Martin and later
served on the County and Supreme Courts from 1933 to 1944.
The high point, or what at least seemed to be his fondest memory, of public
school was the creation of “The Iroquois Club” at Cecil Rhodes Elementary.
This small group remained close through all their years.
Upon graduating from King Edward High School, Arthur entered the University
of British Columbia, where he was fortunate to meet Eleanor Darrel
Gomery, whom he would ultimately marry in 1940. No doubt it was here
that he found his love of bridge, at which he excelled until the very end. His
friends would say that after two rounds he knew which player held which
cards. Upon graduation in 1934, Arthur attended the Vancouver Law
School, obtaining an articling position with G.E. Housser of Walsh Bull &
Company. Until 1995, when UBC conferred an honorary bachelor of laws
degree upon him, he relished telling students and young associates that he
did not have a degree.
Having been called to the bar in 1937, which was still in the Depression
years, and always being independent and self-reliant, Arthur decided to
hang out his shingle as a sole practitioner in Vancouver. They were at first