Walter Szetala edited the CLC BC newsletter for 20 years

On Jan. 31, Walter Szetela, who edited the Campaign Life Coalition British Columbia newsletter for two decades, passed away at Vancouver General Hospital.

Born in Chicopee, Mass., in 1928, he earned a Master’s degree in Mathematics at the University of Michigan  and a doctoral degree from the University of Georgia after serving in the U.S. army. In 1970 he moved to British Columbia with his wife Theresa (now deceased) and children to become a professor of math education at the University of British Columbia for 21 years, and a visiting professor at universities around the globe.

He came to the pro-life movement in the 1970s and became the editor of the quarterly newsletter of the various incarnations of Campaign Life Coalition British Columbia. He was also active in B.C. Teachers for Life.

John Hof, president of CLC BC told the B.C. Catholic that Szetela had “many gifts” and that his math background led him to present the pro-life case with logical and intellectual vigour. He was an inveterate writer of letters to the editor and the Vancouver Sun had to limit how often they published him, which did not please Szetela.

Hof told The Interim that Szetela, a founding member of the Coalition for Life B.C., which later became CLC BC, continued his pro-life activism until a few weeks before pulmonary disease took his life in January. For the past two years, Hof and Szetela would picket together at the Everywoman’s Clinic in Vancouver every Friday. Hof reported that because Szetela’s children were “concerned about their father driving in the big city,” Hof picked him up on the way from Langley. “We had great conversations about everything pro-life,” Hof reports. “He was an enthusiast for life.”

Szetela was “absolutely feisty” even though he was a diminutive man that Hof explained “you could blow away with a good sneeze.” That did not stop him from confronting people on the streets during pickets, where he would debate the issue with a combination of logic and intensity. Szetela also insisted on wearing the sign that depicted an aborted child: “He was fearless.”

Hof said that both the movement and he personally would miss Szetala. The movement has lost Szetela’s institutional memory, intelligence, courage and inspiration.

As for Hof, “picketing won’t be the same without him,” he told The Interim, noting he will miss the conversations in car rides and the inspiration to go picketing when he doesn’t quite feel up to it.

Walter Szetela is survived by his sons Martin and Stephen and daughters Carolyn, Kathryn, and April.