Thursday 1 July 2021

Tribute to Peter Rezansoff (1939–2021)

People’s Builder and Cultural Mover

Peter P. Rezansoff, age 81, Vancouver, British Columbia, died May 16th, 2021. He is survived by his wife Elsie, his three daughters with spouces, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and many friends across Canada and the world.

Click picture to ENLARGE.

As a biographer of interesting Doukhobors around the world, I have found Peter Resansoff to be one of the most memorable. We first met in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan in 1959 during a farewell visit with zealots, when some of them stopped at our place for the night. Peter told me that he was impressed by the Doukhobor university students who organized the Saskatoon Doukhobor student group, published The Inquirer, yet maintained an active interest in their ancestry.

At that time Peter had only seven grades of schooling which he received in the Hilliers, BC experimental community. However, when he decided to become a builder, he did a crash course in getting his high school certificate before going to the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) where within two years he completed the Construction Management Program and became a skilled carpenter. Peter was known for his outstanding memory, for being a perfectionist, for ‘thinking outside the box’, and for being ‘a people person’. At BCIT, he was so liked and so knowledgeable that he taught Saturday classes in carpentry.

He was hired in 1971 as a Superintendent of the first company he pursued, Stanzl Construction. In 1981 he moved to Narod Construction where he was recognized for his business skills and promoted to Vice-President. When the company went bankrupt during Canada’s recession, Peter and a colleague Tony McGill formed their own construction company Intertech Construction Group (later rebranded as Intertech Construction: ITC) and became one of the 50 best managed companies in Canada building high rise residential buildings in Western Canada.

(Left to right) Gordon and Vi Bonderoff, and Peter Rezansoff,
USCC Union of Youth Festival 2013, Brilliant Cultural Centre.

For me as for many others, Peter Rezansoff was larger than life. In spite of his humble beginnings, he was not only successful in business, but he found time to sing, to play the accordion, to nurture his Doukhobor roots, and to support his family. He was truly a bridge-builder for understanding across cultures in his philanthropic work with Whatshan Lake Retreat, the Doukhobor Friends of Tolstoy Bakery Café project at Yasnaya Polyana in Russia, in supporting the Mir Centre for Peace in Selkirk College, the Lower Mainland Doukhobor Benevolent Society, and the USCC Community Doukhobors.

In response to one of the stories about outstanding work by his company, on Feb. 15, 2010 Peter replied in an email:

Thank you Koozma in finding interest in the Vancouver Sun Story and for including this article on your Web Site. I am pleased to have received most positive comments from many friends and associates and you are one of these friends. Just as you, I am proud of my Doukhobor heritage and humble upbringing and am not the least ashamed to share this with everyone I meet. Many in the business community refer to me as ‘The Doukhobor Builder’, ‘one must appreciate his past in order to be able to recognize the future.’

One friend wrote me: ‘I lost a great confident and friend. The world lost a true Doukhobor.’ I fully agree! Peter Rezansoff was an honest exemplary Renaissance man plus, and an outstanding example for others. He will be missed.

More About Peter Rezansoff

5 comments:

  1. Andrew Donskov2 July 2021 at 10:25

    Thank you, Koozma, for such a beautiful bio on a most
    interesting man.

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  2. Russ Kalmacoff2 July 2021 at 10:31

    I never net the man, but was always curious from afar. Rezansoff’s story is awesome. Is there any continuity with his family at ITC? In general, as I’ve become more interested in developing our family office, I’m curious about whether similar entities have emerged from among our tribe. Very important. See what Germany has done with it’s family businesses ( mittelstand ).

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  3. A fitting description for Peter...a Renaissance man plus...reminds me of Dr. Shiv Chopra and his many attributes.

    Peace, love and resistance to Transhumanism

    Kman

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  4. Thank you Koozma. I find all your posts very educational.

    ReplyDelete
  5. The impression of this person is very vivid. Аn absolutely humble person in comparison with his contribution to the life of society, including Russian culture.

    ReplyDelete