It was 1979 and two women rowers were training on Burnaby Lake. Their goal was to compete in events like the U.S. championships that were to be held in Oakridge, Tenn., but the duo didn’t have the funds to go.

Then one day their coach surprised them with tickets to Tennessee where they won a gold and a silver. The coach refused to say who paid for the trip.

Their benefactor remained a secret for more than 30 years until one of Glen Smith’s friends told them Smith had been watching them train and decided to anonymously pay for the duo’s trip. Smith was a member of the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds eights squad that upset England at the 1954 British Commonwealth Games to win a gold medal for Canada. In the early 1960s,

Dr. Glen Smith was a founding member of the Burnaby Lake Rowing Club. After moving to Burnaby in 1985, he became a club board member and didn’t leave until 2011. As a national umpire he officiated at hundreds of regattas for more than 35 years.

Smith also served as a team physician for the Canadian under-23 rowing squad at the 1981 world championships in Vienna.