Bob Buzza: A life fully lived
- syoung679
- 11 minutes ago
- 4 min read
By Ken Novakowski and Larry Kuehn, BCTF past-presidents
Bob Buzza was BCTF President from 1967 to 1968 and went on to serve as BCTF Executive Director from 1973 to 1989. He passed away on January 5 of this year, at the age of 92.
When we informed BCTF past-presidents of Bob’s passing, many responded with positive comments about Bob. Bill Broadley (1975–77) said, “A life fully lived. Bob gave incredible energy to any task he undertook. Bob continued his advocacy for teachers throughout his career. After retirement, he continued his active involvement in community activities—not prepared to sit back and watch. Through it all, Bob was always proud and happy to talk about his family.”
Bob was born and raised in Vancouver and went to Beacon Hill Elementary School, the same elementary school that both of his parents had attended. From there he went to Britannia High School where he met Joy, who was later to become his wife for 65 years. Joy passed away in 2020.
After Britannia, Bob spent a year at Normal School, which was the teacher preparation institution at that time. It was common in those days to start teaching with as little as a year of post-secondary and then to gain a degree though summer school courses and taking time off teaching to do coursework. At the age of 19, he got a teaching job at an elementary school in Kimberley.
Both his teaching experience and activism started early on. In his first year of teaching Bob was elected as a delegate to the BCTF Annual General Meeting and was recruited to his local’s bargaining committee—an indication of his future directions.
After a couple of years in Kimberley, Bob went to UBC where he earned a bachelor of arts degree and eventually a master’s degree. He obtained a teaching position in Burnaby and soon became involved at the administrative level as a vice-principal and later as a principal. Again, Bob became involved in his local, serving first as a geographic representative (now local representative) and then as local president. While he was a member of the Representative Assembly, Bob was nominated to run for the BCTF Executive Committee and was eventually elected BCTF President in 1967 at the age of 35. As Bob recognized in a 2016 interview, “Most of our leaders at that time had come from the administrative ranks, and they were almost always male.”
At the time Bob became president, things were changing, both in education and in the BCTF. The BCTF President was increasingly becoming the public face of the Federation, replacing the General Secretary (the chief of staff) who had filled that role previously. As well, the Federation did not engage in public criticism of the sitting government. They tried to influence government decisions related to education through lobbying, but stopped short of airing concerns in the public arena.
During Bob’s term as president, the government proceeded with significant changes to the education financing formula to limit expenditures, against objections from the BCTF. At the 1968 BCTF AGM, a motion was adopted to inform the public of BCTF criticisms of the government proposal and to carry this on into the provincial election expected within the next year. The AGM also passed a $3 ($27 today) per-member levy to fund advertising for teachers’ concerns during the election. This very significant decision clearly marks the BCTF’s first attempt at using political action to achieve its objectives. As president, Bob made it clear that the BCTF was non-partisan and teachers were acting out of their obligation as education professionals. The BCTF went on to become an organization that was adept at exerting political pressure in the public realm, and this was the inception of that role.
In 1973, Bob was appointed as BCTF General Secretary—only the third person since the organization’s founding in 1917 to hold that pivotal position. Soon after his appointment, Bob recommended the name of the position be changed to Executive Director. As Bob explained it, “You direct on behalf of the Executive Committee,” meaning the Executive Director takes direction from the Executive.
Bob would play an important role in the many changes that would take place in the BCTF over the next 16 years. Bob oversaw the work of a newly unionized staff of about 40 people that would grow close to 90 people by 1989. Much of the change involved the BCTF taking on social justice initiatives fighting against sexism and racism in the school system. The status of women and anti-racism programs, supported by staff, developed extensive province-wide networks to carry out their work in every local and school district in the province. The working and learning conditions program also played a more significant role in Federation initiatives, eventually merging in 1982 with the agreements (salaries) program to form the bargaining division. Work on pensions, education finance, and labour liaison increased. In the later years of Bob’s term as Executive Director, the BCTF gained full bargaining rights and principals and vice-principals were removed from the bargaining unit and hence BCTF membership. All these changes presented Bob with the challenging task of ensuring that staff were organized to adapt to these many changes and continue to best meet the needs of teachers.
One of the highlights of Bob’s term as president was hosting a general meeting of the World Confederation of Organizations of the Teaching Professions (WCOTP). At the time, WCOTP represented over nine million teachers from over 90 countries.
The BCTF had established the W. R. Long Memorial Fund to support work with teachers in other parts of the world, and much of the responsibility in the 1970s and 1980s rested with the Executive Director. Bob enjoyed the resulting international travel and meeting teacher representatives and worked for an extended time with the Ghana National Association of Teachers. On a personal level, Bob became very much involved in the work of Amnesty International during this time, working to assist people in different parts of the world.
After Bob retired he remained active in the broader community. He served with distinction on the UBC Senate and chaired the Douglas College Board of Directors. It was also during this time that he became a popular marriage commissioner, performing over 3,300 weddings.
