Outside of his career in law, Bob Harman has devoted his time to three areas: children, community and dogs.
For more than 50 years, Harman, 78, has been a tireless volunteer, leader, champion and ambassador for the Boy and Girls Club of Greater Victoria. He joined its board of directors in 1962 and continued until 1979, serving as president several times.
He was also a founding member of the Vancouver Island Retriever Club in 1964. He has been treasurer, mentor, judge and adviser. Harman even put his legal brain to work reorganizing the rules and regulations for retriever dog trials.
On Feb. 25 at the Fairmont Empress, Harman will be awarded the Victoria Lifetime Achievement Award at the ninth annual Victoria Leadership Awards, a partnership of the University of Victoria, Rotary Clubs of Greater Victoria, the Victoria Foundation and the United Way.
Harman was also recently honoured with a Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Medal for his dedicated community service.
He was born in Victoria and attended Monterey School, Shawnigan Lake School and Victoria College. He studied law at the University of British Columbia and articled in Vancouver. He returned in 1960 to Victoria, where he practised as a solicitor for 30 years before retiring in 1991.
Harman has continued to support various community groups, including the Mustard Seed, Operation Eyesight and the Victoria Hospitals Foundation. But it’s his efforts with the Boys and Girls Clubs that have earned him the greatest accolades.
Leadership Victoria credits Harman with saving the Boys and Girls Club from shutting down in its early years.
He helped it expand from the Boys Club to include girls. And he took it from an organization that served only Victoria to one that serves the region.
Harman said the Boys and Girls Club has established justice programs to assist kids who are in trouble with the law, and another to help pregnant teens. It has also organized things like sports and outdoor activities.
But he insists the Boys and Girls Club is not about kids with problems — just young people who might not feel at home in groups run by governments or churches.
“It’s not really about troubled kids, but really it’s about kids who don’t otherwise necessarily fit it,” Harman said in an interview.
“Some people use the term ‘kids who are at risk’ but for us, every kid is a kid at risk.”
Harman is the only named winner of a Victoria Leadership Award. Twenty-one people have been nominated for various other awards.
To see a full list, go to leadershipvictoria.ca.
