Paul Allen, American business magnate and co-founder of Microsoft, died of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma Oct. 15, leaving behind a legacy that includes the formation of Francis Point Provincial Park.

“He gave us $2 million and created a wonderful park in the area, which wouldn’t have existed without him,” said Pender Harbour resident Howard White.

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Allen’s connection to the park began in 1996 when White formed the Francis Point Marine Park Society. The 10-person committee was established in response to the news that the McQuarrie family would be selling land following the death of Colin McQuarrie. The asking price was $5 million and residents feared it would be sold to developers who would log the undisturbed, ecologically unique area before subdividing and developing it.

The society worked for four years to raise the millions necessary to purchase the land. “We knew it was a long shot from the get go. None of us had raised that kind of money before and I don’t think anybody on the Sunshine Coast had raised that kind of money before for a park purchase,” White said.

Despite fundraisers and consistently lobbying the provincial and federal governments, the group was able to raise only $80,000, which included funds provided by the District of Sechelt and the Sunshine Coast Regional District. “We thought it was such a jewel for the whole of the B.C. coast, the whole of Canada. So we tried everything we could think of,” recalled White.

Help came at last through the efforts of local writer Edith Iglauer. The well-connected author was attending an art opening in Vancouver and learned through an acquaintance that billionaire Paul Allen had recently formed a forest preservation foundation in Seattle.

The group considered it a “long shot” that an American foundation would donate funds, but they applied anyway, having exhausted their options in Canada. “Lo and behold, they responded very positively to our inquiry,” White said. Soon after, a foundation representative visited Francis Point and witnessed for himself the dry coastal bluffs that are home to 35 land bird species, reindeer lichens, mosses and lodgepole pines, with stands of coniferous old-growth and understoreys of twinflower, rattlesnake plantain, kinnikinnick, and Oregon beaked moss, among other flora.

“Luckily we had nice weather and we saw a big flock of ducks in front of Middle Bay and on Francis Point there was a deer and two fawns there, like the park itself was trying to impress Paul Allen,” said White.

The visit worked and the foundation agreed to donate $1.9 million. The McQuarrie family agreed to lower their asking price by donating $500,000 and the province, including the Forest Renewal Fund, provided the rest. “Once we had the 1.9 million from Paul Allen, everything else fell together,” White said. The park was born in 2000.

BC Parks has a 99-year lease of the 81 hectares, whose terms include always keeping it as a park, with low impact activities and no commercial development. The title for the land is jointly held by the Nature Trust of BC and the Nature Conservancy of Canada. BC Parks recognizes the very dry Coastal Western Hemlock biogeoclimatic zone as “severely underrepresented in B.C.’s protected areas system.”

According to the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation website, “Between 1997 and 2003, the Foundation created and managed a portfolio of 51 grants which protected sensitive forestlands. The grants resulted in the preservation of 400,000 acres of lands that are distinct for the extent and diversity of their tree species.”

White, who visits the park regularly to watch the sun set and chat with visitors walking its trails, said he has received a “surprising” number of phone calls from people who have made the connection. “He has a lot of good will up here,” White said. A plaque is located in the park to memorialize Allen’s donation.