Vancouver (FN), May 13 – Former Canadian Ambassador to Cambodia David Gordon Longmuir passed away peacefully on the first day of spring (19 March 2024) at the North Shore Hospice. He is survived by the beautiful Kazuko, his loving partner of 53 years, son Alec, daughter Catrina and grandchildren Henry, Isabella and Hartley.
Gordon was born in Trail, BC and moved with his mother to Victoria at age nine, following his father’s untimely death. He attended Lampson Street School and the old Esquimalt High School, then joined the Royal Canadian Navy as a cadet at HMCS Venture in 1955. He rose to the exalted rank of Lieutenant, serving mainly in destroyers and frigates on the West Coast. In 1962, he left the service, graduating from UBC in 1965.
That same year, he joined the then - Department of External Affairs, and over the course of 34 years, served in Vietnam, Japan (twice), Korea and Thailand. During his first posting in Tokyo, he met and married the love of his life, Kazuko, daughter of the artist and gallery owner Keikoh Honjo. At the initiative of Keikoh Honjo, they underwent a ceremony at Meiji Shrine in Tokyo, then a civil ceremony in Victoria when Kazuko arrived to join him in Canada.
In Ottawa, where their elder child, Alec, was born, Gordon was assigned mainly to tasks in the Asia Pacific Branch, but also dealt with defence relations and, later, was “disoriented” for a time to serve as Director for Central America and the Caribbean. Prior to his second posting in Japan, Gordon spent a year at the National Defence College of Canada in Kingston, Ontario. In 1991, he was appointed Deputy High Commissioner in India, then Ambassador to Cambodia from 1995 to 1999.
In his retirement, he was invited to join the Institute of Asian Research at UBC as a Research Associate, served on the Executive of the Vancouver branch of the Canadian Institute of International Affairs (now Canadian International Council), and was an Associate of the Centre for Asia Pacific Initiatives at the University of Victoria, BC. He returned to his naval roots as Registrar and editor of the Signal, the newsletter of the HMCS Venture Association and was a member of the Naval Association of Canada. He was a frequent reviewer for the learned journal Pacific Affairs. Gordon was a devoted and loving husband, father, grandfather, and uncle and will be dearly missed by all.
In lieu of flowers, we invite you to consider making a donation to the BC Cancer Society (https://cancer.ca/en/ways-to-give/sponsor-research?utm_source=campaign&utm_medium=vanityurl&utm_campaign=moretomorrows&utm_content=landing%7Cfr&ccs_id=20127&ccs_campaign=monthlygiving2022&s_src=vanityurl-campaign-monthlygiving2022&s_subsrc=moreto) or Ratanak International (https://www.ratanak.org/) in honour of Gordon’s memory.
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