Urban Studies Program mourns loss of former advisor Beverly Grieve

The SFU Urban Studies Program was sad to learn of the recent passing of Beverly Grieve, who served the program as a member of our council of advisors from 2015 to 2018, as well as by acting as external examiner and mentor to many of our students and alumni.

Professor Peter Hall was program director when Beverly served on the council and knows of her work in the City of New Westminster, where she was director of development services. He writes:

I first met Beverly in her capacity as the professor who regularly taught the SFU Centre for Sustainable Community Development’s online housing course. In an era when perceptions of housing had shifted from being a social good to a market commodity, and when ‘housing’ as a university subject had slipped from planning and social work into the realm of real estate finance, that the course even existed is a testament to Beverly’s vision and commitment to the public good. Through the 2000s, Beverly’s course regularly attracted and inspired large numbers of students eager to learn about how to provide housing for all. And now that policy makers are finally waking up to scale of our housing crisis, those same students are taking on professional and leadership roles.

I know that Beverly stayed in touch with many of those students after they graduated, mentoring, advocating for, and guiding them. So, I was delighted that Beverly accepted our invitation to serve on the Graduate Urban Studies Program’s Council of Advisors. The Council acts as a valuable bridge between our program and the community of urban professionals, focused on supporting our students by exposing them to the urban professional landscape. She has also served as external examiner in SFU Urban Studies student presentations and defenses. Despite her considerable responsibilities at the City of New Westminster, to other academic institutions, and to the profession, Beverly was always generous with her time when our students called upon her.

With a leader in the planning profession like Beverly Grieve, it is no surprise that the City of New Westminster has achieved so much through their progressive and innovative secured market rental policy, through their general and neighbourhood plan-making and updates, and through the consistent assertion of the public interest in each and every application brought forward for approval. Politicians decide urban policy, but they have to choose from what their professional staff lay before them, and in New Westminster, the politicians always had a rich selection of choices from the planning office under Beverly’s leadership. These innovations are now being adopted by planning professionals across the Province of British Columbia.

In 2018, Beverly was nominated by her colleagues for the Planning Institute of B.C.'s award for "Individual Achievement – Leadership in Advocacy and Innovation," which she subsequently won. 

She is greatly missed.