Anmore’s Spirit Park will soon have a new name that honours the village’s founding mayor.
The renaming of the village’s centrepiece community park to Dr. Hal Weinberg Spirit Park is one of several initiatives to memorialize Weinberg, who died Jan. 25 following a brief illness. He was 90 years old.
The others, which were approved in a closed meeting of council on July 16, are:
- a boost of the Dr. Hal Weinberg Scholarship Fund to $3,000 annually as well as a review of its guidelines to enhance its focus on individuals who contribute to the community
- allocation of a budget of $2,000 for signage at the renamed park as well as a celebration event
- the installation of display at the new Anmore Community Hub comprised of a photo of Weinberg receiving the Order of British Columbia along with a plaque commemorating his birth and death and years of service as the village’s mayor
Weinberg was a renowned neurophysiologist at Burnaby’s Simon Fraser University when he moved to Anmore in the 1970s.
At the time, the village was still an unincorporated rural area without water services nor a transit connection to the rest of Metro Vancouver.
Weinberg became the area director and in 1987, he and his wife, Linda, along with Greenpeace founder and Anmore neighbours, Bob Hunter and his wife, Bobbi, led the effort to incorporate the community as a municipality and independent village.
Weinberg was subsequently acclaimed as its first mayor, a position he held until 2009.
He is credited with bringing water service to Anmore along with transit and a paved sidewalk along Sunnyside Avenue.
He also founded the village’s annual celebration of newspaper pioneer, Margaret “Ma” Murray, who lived in the village when she and her husband, George, began expanding their publishing enterprise with a magazine for rural women called Country Life.
As an educator, Weinberg was among the first faculty at SFU where he set up the university’s brain behaviour lab and directed its office of research ethics for 15 years. He retired in 2012 and in 2014 he was awarded the Order of BC for his contributions to brain science.
The honour took pride of place alongside the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal he’d received in 2013 for his contributions to building British Columbia.
A statement on Anmore’s website after Weinberg died said, “He loved Anmore and everything it represented.”
📣 Got an opinion on this story or any others in the Tri-Cities? Send us a letter or email your thoughts or story tips to [email protected].
📲 Want to stay updated on Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Port Moody, Anmore and Belcarra news? Sign up for our free daily newsletter.
💬 Words missing in an article? Your adblocker might be preventing hyperlinked text from appearing.
