Remembering Dr. Bob Westbury

It’s with heavy hearts that we share the news of the passing of Dr. Robert Westbury. One of Fringe’s most dedicated and decorated advocates, Dr. Bob leaves a mark on the City and the Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival like no other. His stalwart philanthropic drive and enthusiastic support for the arts gave us the beloved Westbury Theatre and led the charge on the much-needed renovation of the Fringe Theatre Arts Barns in 2002. His passion and vision continue to have profound impact on Fringe Theatre.

We are forever grateful for the love and support Drs. Bob and Marilyn Westbury and their family have extended to Fringe over 25 years. His efforts have built up our Festival and our entire community. We honour the enduring legacy of his memory. Fringe forever, Dr. Bob.

In 2022, Nick Lees wrote a profile of Dr. Bob for The Fringer’s Almanac (1982 – 2022), a book commemorating 40 years of Edmonton Fringe. Read the story below.

How the philanthropy of Bob Westbury helped the Edmonton Fringe grow

Edmonton’s Fringe Theatre Festival has become the oldest and largest event of its kind in North America, thanks in part to a lesson learned by Bob Westbury when he became a 75 cents-an-hour moulder’s helper in Cape Breton. 

Westbury was to become a Fringe Theatre champion and his achievements and honours are too numerous to mention. But the lesson that often guided him came in a foundry when, at the age of 14, he was pouring white-hot metal into sand he had tapped down to create moulds. 

“I was in the process of making manhole covers when liquid hit a cold, moist spot in the sand and expanded so quickly that there was a fracture,” he says. 

“It was a dangerous job and in shock I ran into a corner and began to cry. A big foreman grabbed me by the scruff of the neck and said, ‘Do you want a job or not?’ 

“I meekly said I did and he told me to get back to work and do the best job I could. It was a tough place to work. They had to pay the workers to go to the owner’s funeral.” 

The lesson Westbury learned, he said, was that there are times in life when you make a mistake. But remembering you successfully overcame it will give you the initiative and drive to overcome other setbacks. 

His friends say they don’t remember Westbury making any mistake, but he certainly has used his lesson to become an Edmonton success story. 

Westbury has led many charitable campaigns and raised at least 100 million dollars, say his Edmonton friends. But there is undoubtedly a special connection between him and Edmonton’s International Fringe Theatre Festival. 

Westbury became a Fringe board member in 1999, four years after it had moved into the old Strathcona bus garage and renamed it the Arts Barns.

In 2002, the theatre site was in shambles, “and the board decided significant renovations to the building were vital,” Westbury says. 

At that time, Westbury represented Calgary-based TransAlta Corporation and his initiative and drive were stirred. 

“I was meeting with company president Steve Snyder when he told me he wanted to do something special by creating TransAlberta Night Light at the Calgary Stampede,” says Westbury. 

“The company was showing great financial gains in the Edmonton area, spending nothing here and supporting Calgary. I suggested something might also be done for Edmonton.” 

Snyder agreed and Westbury met with the Fringe Theatre leaders, who had told him they hoped to redo the dirty, dilapidated bus barns. 

“I was delighted when my boss agreed we should help,” Westbury says. “But he placed two caveats: I was to sit on the board and chair the capital campaign.” 

TransAlta contributed $1 million to the cause and Westbury’s fundraising campaign raised a total of $9.2 million. To acknowledge his dedication, the Fringe board named the 315-seat main venue The Westbury Theatre, while the City renamed the road outside Westbury Way. 

Born in 1936 in Sydney, Nova Scotia, Westbury at 15 knew his town offered him limited freedom and satisfaction and he graduated early with English and education degrees from St. Francis Xavier University in nearby Antigonish. 

Love became paramount in his life in 1959 and he married Marilyn Steele, a girl he had known for many years and who was also dedicated to becoming a schoolteacher. 

Says Westbury: “Meeting Marilyn was the start of an extraordinary blessed and enduring partnership.” 

The couple were a powerhouse together, with Marilyn later appointed the Dean of Education at Edmonton’s Concordia University. 

The couple both taught in BC before Westbury went on to study more progressive degrees at the University of Alberta and then the University of Oregon. Later, after working as Director of Curriculum Development with the Edmonton Catholic School system, he received a PhD from Florida State University. 

Westbury scored an early career entrepreneurial win in Edmonton in 1976 when helped create the SEEDS (Society Environment Energy Development Studies) Foundation, designed to fill a gap in young Canadians’ understanding of conservation issues. 

“The program brought together educators, scientists, environmentalists and business leaders to develop textbooks used by more than two million Canadian students,” Westbury says. 

In the mid-1980s, his entrepreneurial skills were noted by TransAlta and he was appointed to the new Vice-President position of Public Affairs and Environment. At the time, Westbury had also decided it was time he expanded his focus on giving back. 

His many volunteer works saw him chair both the Citadel Theatre board and the Capital Region United Way Campaign cabinet and generate a successful fundraising approach that developed significant income for Kids Kottage. 

“One of my best-remembered lifetime moments came while serving as Northland’s Park President in the mid-’90s,” Westbury recalls. “Two colleagues and I prevented Peter Pocklington from selling the Edmonton Oilers to the US. 

“We had a clause inserted into a contract that gave Northlands or its agents the first right of refusal should Mr. Pocklington wish to sell the hockey club for the $72 million US it had been valued at.” 

Les Alexander, owner of the NBA’s Houston Rockets, came to town to buy the team and left the next day when he read the clause. “It enabled our local owners’ group to buy the team,” Westbury says. “It was one of my finest moments.” 

In 2002, he became the Vice-President of Corporate Relations for what is now Grant MacEwan University. Two years later saw him working for TELUS and later being appointed Chief Advisor of Relations and Innovations. 

He created the first prototype of numerous boards TELUS established across Canada and oversaw the distribution of charitable funding of some $3.3 million to strengthen 217 local charitable organizations. 

Indefatigable Westbury also continued to extend his lengthy resume of volunteer work. Some highlights include his chairing of 2004 Juno Awards in Edmonton; serving on the 2005 World Masters Games board of governors; co-chairing the Premier’s Task Force on Crystal Meth and serving on the Mayor’s Taskforce on Homelessness.

Stephen Mandel, three-time Edmonton mayor (2004 – 2013) and Alberta Party leader (2018 – 2019), says Edmonton is a better place to live because of Westbury.

“He helped sustain the Fringe, one of Edmonton’s most prestigious events, while also reaching out to and impacting [so] many groups. So many events would have not succeeded without his support.”

Westbury and his wife’s two married children with families, Marnie and Robbie, are proud of their dad, whose many accolades include becoming a member of the Order of Canada and the Alberta Order of Excellence and being awarded both the Queen’s Diamond and Jubilee Medals.

He has been inducted into Edmonton’s Community Service Hall of Fame and holds an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Alberta (2007).

His generosity will never be forgotten.

“It was announced in 2017 there would in future be an annual $25,000 Westbury Family Fringe Theatre award for a local emerging Artist, thanks to a $400,000 endowment fund built by near and dear friends and colleagues of the Westbury Family,” says Megan Dart, the Fringe Theatre’s Executive Director.

“The award will help the recipient produce a new show each Fringe season, including mentorship, access to venues, technicians, marketing, box office, production, and financial support.

“Bob is our Fringe Festival champion. He will always be close to our hearts.”