Paul & Rose Anderson’s Legacy Story

Every couple has a “how we met” story but few include the words “horror story”. Paul and Rose Anderson’s story does. A friend of Paul’s set him up on a blind date with Rose. His friend and his girlfriend joined them for an evening at the movies. Turned out the movie was Hitchcock’s classic “Psycho”.  

Despite this harrowing start in 1962, the two were quickly a couple and stayed devoted to each other for almost 60 years.

Both of Paul’s parents were from Denmark. They owned a farm outside of Edmonton where Paul was born in 1932. The family moved to BC and his father bought and ran a bakery in Ashcroft. Sadly, he died at the age of 38 from lung cancer. Later, in 1947, when Paul was 15, the family moved to Abbotsford. At that time, Clearbrook had two grocery stores and where SevenOaks Mall stands now there was a ravine.

While still in high school, Paul worked for Bennion’s Pharmacy located in downtown Abbotsford, near Jake’s Barbershop. He left Abbotsford for Vancouver where he earned a pharmacy degree at UBC. After he and Rose were married they lived in Vancouver for another three years before returning to settle in Abbotsford. 

Paul purchased Bennion’s Pharmacy in 1965 and joined the Pharmasave chain.  “I had to borrow $18,000 to buy the store and I wouldn’t have got the loan if my mother hadn’t co-signed for it,” Paul explained. He owned and operated the pharmacy for twenty years. When he sold it, his store was number one (out of 95 stores) in sales in BC. 

“We had a partnership, Rose and I,” Paul explained. “I ran the business and she ran the house, took care of the children (two daughters and a son), paid the bills and looked after all the household chores”. After selling his business and retiring he and Rose enjoyed many years of travel. “We travelled all over North America. We were both avid golfers so our goal was to play at least one round of golf in every state. We didn’t hit all 50 but were made four cross continent trips and we also spent time in our condo in Palm Springs,” he said.

Paul was been active in the community for many years. In the 1970s, his daughter Karen excelled in running in high school and this led Paul to get involved with the Valley Royals Track and Field Association. “There were two clubs. I was the President of the Valley Royals and Henry Braun was President of the Abbotsford Track and Field Association and we decided to put the two clubs together.”

The new association initially used the name Abbotsford Royals and they created an endowment fund in 1988 held by the Abbotsford Community Foundation. “The government said if you had a certain amount of money you couldn’t qualify for money from bingo and both clubs had money, so by pooling our money in the endowment fund we were able to continue receiving bingo money, plus we had the income from the fund,” he explained. Today, the endowment, now called the Valley Royals Track and Field Endowment fund has grown to just over $600,000 and its income continues to help the club attract top notch coaches producing a number of award-winning athletes.

Paul was also active in the Abbotsford Lions Club in the late 60s where he served as President and the Club was instrumental in creating Mill Lake Park and supported many other worthwhile causes.

In 1998, he and Rose decided to create a community endowment fund with an initial gift of $3,000, adding to it over the years and including it in their estate planning. Over the years, the Andersons continued to make annual contributions and reinvesting the interest the fund earned, into the capital. Just before Paul’s passing in December 2022, the fund had grown to just over $100,000 and will provide grants, in perpetuity, to local charities that improve the quality of life of Abbotsford residents whether that’s supporting those at risk, developing literacy initiatives, creating green spaces, or enhancing recreational opportunities. Their legacy will live on in the projects and programs that their fund has funded and will fund, forever. 

“This community has been very good to us so we felt it was important to give something back,” he said. 

After taking increasing care of Rose for several years, Paul made the difficult decision in 2020 to move her into a full-care retirement home. In 2021, he moved them both to a Langley retirement home that offered her full-time care and him independent living so that he could be together with his “Roses”, and celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary in July of 2022.

Sadly, Paul passed away later that year, in December. Rose passed away in 2024. Their children – Paul, Karen, and Charlotte, now act as advisors on their parents’ fund to ensure their legacy continues.