Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Busy life together for Hobsons

Richard Hobson was born in Toronto in 1944 and raised in Vancouver. After high school, he worked for the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce for eight years. He married his high school sweetheart Judith Templer in 1970.
col-nadalin.14_11142019.jpg
Richard and Judith Hobson posed for a photo recently at their home in Prince George.

Richard Hobson was born in Toronto in 1944 and raised in Vancouver.

After high school, he worked for the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce for eight years. He married his high school sweetheart Judith Templer in 1970.

Judith was born in Vancouver in 1948, went to school in Kelowna and Coquitlam and after high school she completed her nurses training at the Vancouver General Hospital.

Judith said, "Richard lived next door to my aunt and uncle. I first met him when I was 14 and we started dating in Grade 10.

"After I received my nursing diploma, I worked at Vancouver General and Surrey Memorial until our babies started to arrive. We have two children; Bethany (Rick) and Barton who in turn gave us three wonderful grandchildren.

"I eventually went back to part time work at the hospital while we raised our babies."

Richard changed jobs, took the needed training and went into the flooring business and then worked for a flooring wholesale company.

He worked at Sears for four years in the flooring department until he heard about a flooring business that was up for sale in Prince George. It was advertised as an opportunity to buy into the business over a period of three years. Richard applied and the young family moved to Prince George.

Richard said, "When we got here, we learned that the opportunity was not quite as advertised and a second set of books showed that the company was deep in the red. Because of my banking and flooring experience and my wholesale flooring connections I was able to make a go of the business.

"Once I balanced the books and we showed a profit the owner upped the price of the sale of the business and I simply walked away from it all."

Richard went back to work for Sears as their flooring manager and was quickly moved up as the manager of the furniture department. During that time, he studied and went into the real estate business. He worked for Barry Leboe at Century 21 Westside Realty for the next seven years. He liked what he was doing but the business was demanding and required a lot of time away from his family so he went back into the flooring business for a short time.

He worked the next 10 years for the Jim Pattison Sign Group.

Friends and family quite often called on Richard for financial planning advice - a skill he learned during his earlier banking experience. He turned that hobby into a career and for the next 18 years worked in financial planning until he retired.

Richard said, "My retirement lasted for about 90 days. I have been working for NR Motors for the past seven years selling recreation vehicles."

Richard has volunteered for the past 32 seasons in security, guest services and as a minor official for the Spruce Kings hockey team in the winter. He umpired baseball and softball for 36 summer seasons.

In the meantime, Judith worked as a registered nurse both part time and then full time for 14 years at the hospital. This was followed by another 14 years in the community with the infant development program.

She reflected back and said, "My work in the intensive care nursery was sad at times but overall it was a very rewarding career.

"I went on to work at the health unit as a health unit assistant and retired in 2017 after 46 years of a successful nursing career."

Judith explained, "I was pleased when the provincial government changed their adoption regulations in 1992. The change enabled me to locate my birth mother who gave me up for adoption at birth and then married my father 18 months later. All of this is complicated but they went on to have seven more children. In the meantime, I was raised by wonderful parents who chose me to be their daughter and gave me a younger sister. It was a very happy day when I discovered that I had seven other siblings. When we met in 1992, our families melded nicely and we have had a very close relationship for the past 27 years. I am still in awe, because at the time, my family count went from four to nearly 100 family members. I am happy to say that this was a happy and major change in my life that I cherish each and every day."