I knew Dr. J. Ross MacLean pretty well. Also knew his sons Ross and Stuart and his man Friday and chauffeur, Jim. I frequently hung out with Ross and Stuart at Casa Mia during the 70’s. I could tell you lots of things about Dr. Mac Lean, pieces of his entourage, and parts of his regimen. I knew him briefly from 1970 to 1975. His best friend was my cousin Ron Markin. There is much I could tell you about him , if you are interested. e.g. his sons Ross and Stuart had to actually make appointments with his secretary to talk to their dad in the second floor boardroom in Casa Mia. I remember Giovanni (Johnny} well, the live-in master carpenter who maintained the whole castle, with its carved doorways etc. Dr. Mac Lean and Ron were in a number of business ventures together in California, Hawaii, and Vancouver. I had just come back from University and was asked to join them in the jeans venture. I had a management contract with them later on to manage two of the jeans stores and was actively involved with them building the chain/ planned franchise jeans operation based on Jeans West from the US. First name was “Funk ‘n’ Jeans”. Name lasted only a couple of months and then had to be changed and became “Union Jacks & Jeans “. Lasted four years, had 10 stores and an office/warehouse and when it was time in ’74 for the IPO, investment firm said market was too soft and entering a recession. Stores were sold to an Eastern firm. We all went our separate ways. If you’d actually like to ask me some things about him or that era of Casa Mia, you can email me back and we can arrange a meeting. I live in the west side of Vancouver and am fully retired. Jerry

Good evening Eve, I have been following along with the Maclean family and Casa Mia and this is all so fasinating….love history of our city. Are the Maclean family still around or is too late a question.seen it does go back quite a few years..I have ordered books from Amazon to follow the years and all the happenings . thank you Eve.

I met Dr. Ros MacLean in 1967 first as an employee at Stuart Island Resort, 30 miles northwest of Campbell River. The doctor had just bought the resort out of bankruptcy, and was employed as a fishing guide, while my father managed the resort for him.

Later we leased the resort from MacLean, and I would go to annual business meetings at the Hollywood Hospital, where his main offices were. The meetings included MacLean, his accountant, my father, and I.

Maclean had a mind for facts and figures equaled by very few. The calculations done in his head were astonishing. He would look at his accountant a few minutes after stating some quick calculations, only for verification as bean counter worked feverishly with pencil and pad to do confirm MacLean’s calculations.

Physically, he was a large mustached man, a tad over 6′, a big frame with a complimenting large belly, that strangely didn’t signal obesity, but more of strength and power. Added to that stance he was always waving his hand imperiously with a long 8-inch cigar in it, but I rarely recalled it being lit.

The story circulating then, which is before he bought Casa Mia, was his seed money came from his marriage to the daughter of the founder of Royal City Cannery, a popular brand in the day, but I think now gone.

He was also involved with the Shriners, in a big way, and I believe he was the Potentate of either Canada, or possibly all of Shriners International in the 70s. As well as being involved with ultra-right-wing groups in the USA – they would have meetings at Stuart Island.

The last I talked to him directly was in 1978, when he offered to sell me the resort for an unbelievably low price, which I accepted. Apparently he had serious problems with Revenue Canada. At that time he no longer had the Hollywood Hospital, and hadn’t had it for at least three years as his head office was now Wallace Machinery, on Venables St. in Vancouver.

Only through rumor, from a friend of his daughter, it was said he had lost all his wealth and was then living with his daughter. It is hard to believe that in its entirety, because he was truly a gifted man and only his ego could have toppled him.

I am writing an article on Hollywood Hospital but can’t find much about Dr. Maclean – as I understand he suffered a heart attack in the mid-seventies, sold Hollywood Hospital which is now New Westminster Center was 515 5th Ave. (along the old stagecoach line) and died shortly after – a mensch to the end he is listed as a sponsor of a local women’s softball team that placed second in the world in 1978. Can’t find an obit. Anybody?

Gotta love them footnotes 😉

Yes, At Home with History. It is referenced in the book Vancouver Was Awesome.

I believe the family also owned a large country home in Langley, not sure if it is still standing, but was equally unique and well-appointed. that might be a fun sidebar. also…I don’t think the family ended all that happily, in something of obscurity compared to their early days. a caretaker at the bird sanctuary??

cheers, Mary-Gay Gray