Kamloops education giant Gordon Gore passes away
Nov 11, 2020 | 3:17 PM
James Peters
KAMLOOPS – A legend in the Kamloops science education community has passed away. Gordon Gore died just a few days short of his 83rd birthday.
Gore is best known for founding and leading the BIG Little Science Centre in Kamloops for the last two decades, but his involvement in science education goes much deeper.
Gore was born in Toronto but moved to Quebec in his early years. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree from McGill University in Montreal before moving to British Columbia. He earned his Master of Education in Science at the University of British Columbia and embarked on a career in teaching.
He taught science courses at John Oliver Secondary and Sir Charles Tupper Secondary in Vancouver. He also taught at Richmond Secondary before moving to Kamloops where he taught at Kamloops Secondary, Westsyde Secondary, Norkam Secondary. He also taught at Hatzic Secondary in Mission.
His passion for teaching also led him to a position of training science and physics teachers at the Faculty of Education at UBC. He also wrote and contributed to several books used in the public school system curriculum.
Following his retirement from teaching in the public school system, he taught several science courses at Thompson Rivers University (TRU) in Kamloops. TRU recognized his work, granting him an honourary Doctor of Letters for his work in promoting science through his writings and through the BIG Little Science Centre.
Gore received several awards over his decades of teaching including the Order of British Columbia, the B.C. Teacher of the Year Award, the Eve Savory Award for Science Communication, and the Award for the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Award for Science Promotion.
Gore’s love of science will be celebrated in a gathering in the future. The date will be determined later. The event will be arranged by the BIG Little Science Centre and is expected to include some of Gordon’s favourite science demonstrations.
In lieu of flowers, the family is asking for donations in his memory to the BIG Little Science Centre.
