Mike was born in Whitehorse in 1951. Mike’s mother was the daughter of a pioneer family from Scotland and Ireland (McQuillan/Cowie) that settled in the Comox Valley on Vancouver Island. Her father was a logging road builder in the 1920’s to 1950’s. Her brothers followed their father’s footsteps into logging. Mike relates to the forestry sector of our community, given his grandfather and uncles involvement with logging in the Comox, Cumberland, Lake Cowichan, and Campbell River communities. Mike moved to Squamish in 1989 with his family and has been active in the community with the Squamish Lions Club, Squamish Chamber of Commerce, Squamish Days, and Royal Canadian Legion to name a few. Mike recently retired from Squamish Savings after serving credit unions for over 28 years. He also serves on the boards of the Tantalus Senior Centre Society and the Squamish Oceanfront Development Corporation. The forming of the Squamish Historical Society in 2006 was one of Mike’s community initiatives when he was elected to Squamish Council in November 2005. He saw a need to preserve and profile Squamish’s history. He was the founding Secretary and Vice-President and has now moved to the Treasuer position. Given Mike’s financial background, he applied for charitable status for the society. Recently, the Society has developed a good relationship with the Westcoast Railway Heritage Park and Mike looks forward to furthering that relationship with a display of Squamish’s history. Mike chose the steamoperated digger as background for his profile photo to remember his grandfather who was a logging road builder.
