A life that made everyone around him better.
Gordon Leonard Diewert and Susan began dating while attending New Westminster Secondary School together and fell in love in Prince Edward Island during a Young Voyageurs grade 12 school trip. At NWSS, Gord was already a star — an honour roll student, selected as the Most Promising Quarterback in British Columbia, and awarded the Columbian Trophy. He played baseball as a pitcher up to the minor leagues, and gave back to the community as a lifeguard, a little league coach, and an umpire at both the little league and minor league level.
In 1973 — a year after marrying Susan — Gord received his Bachelor's Degree from the University of British Columbia and was offered a scholarship at the University of Waterloo. Susan left her position at Douglas College and they moved to Ontario together. Gord earned his Master of Science Degree from the University of Waterloo in 1975, and completed his PhD in 1979 from the University of Wisconsin, with a Minor in Psychology and Educational Psychology.
His research focused on how motor learning and control varied with age, and how that knowledge could assist people with sensory challenges including blindness, deafness, and movement memory in developmentally challenged children — work that mattered to people who had no one else studying their needs.
More accomplished at 30 than most achieve in a lifetime.
When Gord was killed, he was working in the Department of Kinesiology at Simon Fraser University and had just been promoted to tenured professor. He was a founder of the University's Institute for Human Performance, taught Statistics and Psychomotor Learning, and conducted research in the Psychomotor Learning and Performance Department.
He cared deeply about aging populations and was actively involved with SFU's Gerontology Department, contributing to a proposal for a Gerontology Research Centre. On behalf of the Institute for Human Performance, he completed an evaluation of the physical abilities required of firefighters and was about to introduce an employment screening program for the Vancouver Fire Department.
Beyond academia, Gord built equipment for the SFU ski team, organized annual golf, curling and bowling tournaments for Graduate and Research Assistants in Motor Learning, and was involved in aerodynamics and working conditions in Northern BC lumber mills. He even built equipment for the Vancouver Planetarium to measure reaction times under varying circumstances.
He was given grants throughout his career, including a $24,000 grant from the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council. He had 13 publications in scholarly journals and 5 additional publications under review — including a book — at the time of his death. He was 30 years old.
Gord also adopted Ginny, a rescued cat from the SPCA, and had just welcomed a new purebred Vizsla puppy named Raedar into their home. He was a genuinely caring, good person — to everyone he knew and every creature in his life.
To all of us who have suffered a tragic and unexpected loss, whether it be a loved one, dear friend or pet, they will always live on in our memories and forever be an important part of our lives. We believe that everyone who enters our world leaves distinct footprints behind that tell a story about who they were and what they did. We all leave a legacy in our own way. Although we should look back and remember those who have left us, we must also look forward and assist with making positive changes that, where possible, can prevent the loss of other precious lives. For all that Gord could have and would have accomplished let us bring much needed awareness to responsible drinking and remember that it is socially acceptable, at any age, to have a designated driver.
— Susan Diewert Kwong & Peter Kwong, Founders of the Gordon L. Diewert Foundation
The Foundation established in his name.
The Gordon L. Diewert Foundation and Scholarship was established in 2008 by Susan Diewert Kwong — a Founding Member of the Douglas College Administration Staff — and her husband Peter Kwong, to honour Gord's life and carry forward his belief in community, education, and responsible choices.
The goal of the Foundation's scholarship is to promote the responsible use of alcohol and foster the prevention of drinking and driving. Every student supported, every designated driver encouraged, every life saved — is part of the legacy Gord left behind.
Help prevent the next tragedy.
A donation to the Diewert Foundation funds responsible alcohol awareness programs, designated driver initiatives, and student scholarships in Gord's name.
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