Long before Skier’s Plaza became the community’s go-to spot to congregate after a day on the slopes, the area now home to Whistler Village was a garbage dump—literally.
But you know what they say about one man’s trash.
The other man, in this case, was Richard “Dick” Gibbons, one of the visionaries credited with helping Whistler realize its potential as a world-class resort destination. The lawyer and businessman was among the earliest investors in the resort’s fledgling pedestrian village, building the first commercial structure in Village Square in the late ’70s and founding iconic venues that formed the foundation for the powerhouse Gibbons Hospitality Group his eldest son, Joey, now leads as CEO.
“Right from a garbage dump, he just thought it was the best place on Earth, and understood why everybody would want to come there,” Joey said.
Whistler is now mourning the loss of one of its most passionate, enduring champions, whose ability to see opportunity in a landfill was emblematic of his tendency to see the best in people and places. Dick died last Tuesday, Aug. 8 at the age of 80, surrounded by his family, five years after he was diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
Dick achieved remarkable success over the course of his lifetime, but overcame his fair share of hurdles to do so. Raised alongside his brother David near the railway tracks in Burnaby, “he grew up in really tough circumstances,” Joey said. “It was athletics that sort of got him out of that.” Those talents brought Dick to the University of British Columbia (UBC), where he became a star football player while attending law school.
Dick’s law career in West Vancouver went on to span 30 years, but even as he and his wife, Colleen, continued to put down roots on the North Shore, Whistler called. The couple bought property in Alpine in 1967, one year after Whistler Mountain’s lifts opened in Creekside.
“He wasn’t really even a skier, but [during] the long, grey Vancouver winters, he would come to Whistler and it felt like it was this other world that he could go into and feel rejuvenated every time he went up there,” Joey said. “He really believed in that feeling that he had, and felt other people would want that, too.”
So, as rumblings about developing the garbage dump gained traction, Dick sold off business assets in the city to fund Phase 1 of Whistler Village: the Fitzsimmons building, which opened in 1979 and currently houses The Amsterdam, La Bocca, La Brasserie and Hot Buns Bakery.
The resort’s first dance bar, Club 10, and a restaurant, Stoney’s, were planned for the building’s ground floor, but Dick made sure to finish his family’s condo first, just in time for the holidays that year, when Joey was only three. “The three of us stayed there by ourselves that first Christmas,” he remembered. “We were the only ones in the village.”
Operating the pub wasn’t initially in the cards, until sky-high interest rates in the early ’80s made selling off solely the commercial space nearly impossible.
Though Dick managed to sell the entire Fitzsimmons building within a year, after a provincial agency approached him and a couple of friends to take over construction of the Carleton Lodge at the base of Whistler Mountain, the economic situation hadn’t exactly improved. “Once again, he was trying to sell the commercial space, and they all were going to end up with units upstairs,” Joey explained.
Once again, Dick found himself going into the bar business instead. The Longhorn Pub opened in the Carleton Lodge in December 1981, with a name inspired by a stock certificate Dick kept framed on his desk. Years earlier, he’d been convinced to invest in a company with the same name, only to watch its value tumble down to zero. He kept the certificate as a reminder “you’ve always got to look up before you look down when making investments,” Joey recalled.
Dick always tried to “make the best out of every situation,” Joey added. At the Longhorn of pre-bike park years, that meant keeping the pub open throughout the summer off-season to keep staff employed, setting up volleyball courts and organizing concerts to draw in business, allowing bike races to run right through the restaurant, partnering with the municipality to set up Whistler’s first softball backstop and organize tournaments, and even walking into a FIS meeting—in France—to ask what it would take to add a Whistler race to the World Cup calendar. This, all while simultaneously practising law; balancing his penchant for debate with a passion for entertaining and hosting, and setting an ever-positive example for those in his orbit.
“He just cared about this town so much—God, just so much,” Joey said. “It’s been an inspiration for me to see how much someone can care for a community and the people inside it, and he always did it quietly.”
His devotion to community service continued after moving to Whistler full-time around 1989, only growing stronger as the resort flourished into a globally-acclaimed destination.
Alongside Colleen, Dick donated $500,000 to his alma mater in 2020 to establish an annual scholarship program for UBC students who might not otherwise be able to attend university.
A man who always tried to do his best for his community, his colleagues, employees and loved ones is how Dick’s family imagines he’d like to be remembered, Joey explained. Always quick to offer a valuable piece of advice and reticent to accept any credit, “He gave us so much to aspire to,” he said.
“He was a guy that gave people the benefit of the doubt,” Joey added. “The underdog was his friend. And he was always at home with people that worked hard.”
Dick leaves behind his wife of more than 50 years, children Joey, Erika, Matthew, Britt and their spouses, plus 10 grandchildren, sisters-in-law Deedee and Janice, and a long list of extended family, close friends and colleagues. All are welcome to celebrate Dick’s life at the Whistler Conference Centre on Saturday, Aug. 26 at 1 p.m.
