Bill was the creator of this website.
Peacefully on Wednesday, March 8, 2023, at his home in Ottawa. William Rupert Arthurs, son of John and Vera (Titus) Arthurs, was born on October 1, 1930, at Westport, Brier Island, Nova Scotia. Raised at South Bay, Saint John, New Brunswick, Bill first joined the Air Cadets, and then the RCAF as a fighter pilot flying Sabres and Starfighters.
In the 1950’s while serving at the Canadian NATO air force base at Gros Tenquin, France, he met his wife, Jeanette (Rigg). She was a schoolteacher on the base, and upon returning to Canada, they married on December 31, 1957.
A graduate of Sir George Williams University, Montreal, Bill continued to study things of interest to him. He knew most of what could be known about both ferns and orchids. He developed an authoritative database of the genealogy of the Titus family (his mother’s line) that extends back 400 years and contains almost 200,000 names. Never one to do anything superficially, he developed expertise in the application of DNA analysis to genealogy and discovered that he is related (by marriage) to John Watson, the co-discoverer of the structure of DNA.
After his first retirement, he began a second career as an Investment Advisor with Davidson Partners Ltd. in Ottawa. After exits, mergers and takeovers, Bill retired a second time, from Nesbitt Burns.
He will be remembered with love and respect by his son, David Arthurs (Erin Cassidy) and daughter, Sue Anderson (Brian), as well as his grandson, Peter Anderson. He is survived by his brother, Robert (Sandie Good) of Mount Hope. Predeceased in 2009 by brothers Allan of Grand Manan, NB, and Ralph of Saint John, NB.
Bill died three years to the day after his beloved wife, Jeanette.