Tribute

It is with heartbreak and heartache that the family of Timothy Dennis Arthur Crighton announce his peaceful passing at the Cowichan District Hospital on February 10, 2022 at the age of 73. Tim will be lovingly remembered by the many whose lives he touched, and especially by his dearest loved ones Monica Boyd, Marilyn Weland, daughter Jennifer and brother Andrew.

Tim was born on July 4, 1948 in Woking, England. He attended two British boarding schools – Fernden and Uppingham – and didn’t much like them. All those rules? Bah! He emigrated to Montreal in 1963. There, he graduated from Westmount High and went to McGill University. His first job was as a junior photographer and, in that role, he grabbed an early opportunity to photograph John Lennon and Yoko Ono during their infamous bed-in for peace in Room 1742 of Montreal’s Queen Elizabeth Hotel. After meeting them, in a turn of events that would never happen today, Yoko asked Tim to take care of her 4 year-old daughter, Kyoko, because she was tired of the parade of boring visitors who kept coming and going to talk with John and Yoko in bed. For a day and a half, Tim had a grand old time taking Kyoko all over town and even borrowing a four year-old of his own from a friend so that she would have someone to play with.

Photography was not Tim’s first love though. Drama was. From an early age, he had been drawn to the theatre. He acted in high school and then got his career off to a flying start when he landed a role in the Montreal production of “HAIR!”, the Broadway musical that captured the spirit of the 60’s generation. Following that, Tim spent 50 years as an actor and stage manager in Toronto, Edmonton and Duncan BC. In Edmonton, he was part of the television crew that produced the first season of Canada’s own “SCTV” with Second City stars like John Candy, Martin Short, Catherine O’Hara and Eugene Levy.

The dramatic life was well suited to Tim’s passionate, larger-than-life personality. He loved the intensity, creativity and dedication that went into theatrical projects of all kinds. He threw himself into his work with creative abandon that could sometimes be disconcerting (to put it mildly). He was generous with his time and his talents. His skills as a designer and carpenter were legendary and he was always ready and willing to volunteer, whether it was for a major undertaking like building and managing the stage at the Islands Folk Festival, or helping a friend fix a roof. Or a floor. Or a boat. He loved boats. He came from a long line of seagoing forbears, including his great-great grandfather Captain Robert Crighton who was immortalized in Walt Whitman’s poem Leaves of Grass for being the epitome of a “hero” in a famous rescue at sea of the steamship San Francisco in 1853.

Tim Crighton was wild and wonderful. He had a colourful and charismatic life and, as it happens, a courageous, lifelong struggle with bi-polar disorder. For 40 years and more, he lived large and loved deeply (and often) in the Duncan and Nanaimo areas. Without his unique, indomitable, sometimes formidable high spirits, the world will truly be a less dramatic place.

In remembrance of him, if you can find someone who knew Timothy Dennis Arthur Crighton, ask them to tell you a story about him. They’ll have one… and it’s guaranteed to be a good one!