Immigrated: 1911

Occupation: Forester

Passed away at: Royal Jubilee Hospital

Interment: Cremation took place on April 6, 1993, interred at a later date

Family: predeceased by his first wife Mary Lexia Graham in 1950, survived by his second wife Jean Kathleen Henry, 2 sons Graham and Roger, and 2 grandsons

Parents: Arthur Heaton Garman and Emily Smith

NOTE: Eric Garman, born on March 15, 1898, experienced adversity early in life. When his family immigrated to Canada from England in 1911 his education was curtailed because it was necessary for him to get a job to help support the family. Over the next several years he tried an assortment of jobs in Vancouver, but found none with a promise of a stable future.

World War I was the turning point in his life. At the age of 17, the 5' 7", 140 lb. Eric, enlisted as a Private with The Duke of Connaught's Own 158th (Overseas) Battalion (Service #645723) on February 7, 1916 in Vancouver, B.C. After taking part in basic training in Canada he was sent to England onboard the S.S. Olympic and arrived there on November 20, 1916. After spending almost 17 months in England preparing for battle he was shipped off to France on April 19, 1918 where he served until he was sent back to Canada on May 8, 1919 and discharged just over one month later on June 18, 1919 in Vancouver, B.C. as a Sapper. The army gave him his first steady job, but more importantly, once the war was over, it gave him an opportunity to upgrade his education. The Dominion government paid for condensed education classes for war veterans and he obtained his high school diploma and started to make plans for extending his education.

Eric's introduction to the B.C. Forest Branch in the summer of 1922 was the Forest Surveys Division, where he worked as a compassman. He joined the Nass River survey under Party Chief Dick Orchard, who later became chief forester. In the summer of 1922, he again worked on the Nass River survey party. His first research job was in 1923 as a summer assistant to "Alex" Alexander. At that time there were only two full-time researchers in the B.C. Forest Branch, and there was no Research Division.

After three summers in the B.C. Forest Branch, two in surveys and one in research, Eric decided to study Forestry. He enrolled at the University of British Columbia in 1924. When he discovered that the emphasis was on Forest Engineering, he headed south for Forestry Studies at Oregon State University. While he was attending university, he spent the summers at the newly established Aleza Lake Experiment Station, east of Prince George, where he enjoyed his introduction to the Central Interior of the province.

The Aleza Lake Experiment Station had become a reality in 1924. He was sent there in May 1925 to work on a four-man crew conducting a forest inventory of the station. Development of the station was still in its infancy. A rough wagon road had been constructed from the railway to the campsite. There were a half-dozen tents in a small clearing, which was being enlarged to provide space for more permanent buildings. In 1926 Eric returned to Aleza Lake Experimental Station and used the camp as a headquarters while he did field work on studies of natural regeneration on cutovers in spruce balsam forest types. His field assistants that year were Braham Griffith and Fin McKinnon, who worked on alternative weeks for him.

The year 1927 was a banner year for Eric. He graduated from Oregon State University, and the Research Division became a reality in that year, boasting a professional staff of seven researchers. Eric progressed from part-time employee to full-time researcher responsible for his own projects. In 1927, Garman undertook post-graduate studies at Yale University, earning his MF in 1928. On his return to the Research Division, he began studies of natural regeneration on logged lands in coastal Douglas-fir types. Field measurements continued for more than two decades before office support became available after World War II. Results were ultimately published by Eric in 1954.

As Eric remembered it, optimism and enthusiasm prevailed in those early days. In 1930 there were nine full-time researchers, two established experimental stations, and the annual budget exceeded $50,000, a figure that surpassed the annual research expenditures of the Dominion Forest Service. The next phase of the Research Division concerned its disintegration. With great concern, Eric saw the impact of the Depression bringing about the departure of his co-workers.

Stig Schenström, not being a Canadian citizen or a British subject, was the first to get laid off. Most of the other researchers left of their own accord, as they could see little future in remaining. The research budget had been reduced to a level which barely allowed the maintenance of existing experiments. One by one they left, most of them getting teaching jobs at American forestry schools. At the beginning of 1936, Barnes, Griffith, and Robertson departed. He was now alone in the Victoria office, as Fin McKinnon was in California on educational leave. Eric might also have departed, but by this time he was married and had established his roots in the community.

Times were tough during the Depression, but Eric would cope. After identifying serious Douglas-fir regeneration problems in the late 1930s, Garman initiated studies in direct seeding. These studies, and Schenström's thinning and pruning studies, were reactivated by newly appointed researchers under Garman's guidance after World War II. In later years, he studied the identification and distribution of interior spruces. His final contribution was a thorough revision of "The pocket guide to the trees and shrubs in British Columbia," which has withstood the test of time with only minor changes in subsequent revisions. Eric was the first researcher to spend his entire working career in the Research Division of the B.C. Forest Service . During those three-and-a half decades, he was witness to many important events in the evolution of the division.

Eric, whose first wife Mary Lexia Graham had passed away in 1950, remarried five years later to Jean Kathleen Henry. Retiring in 1962 he enjoyed more than 30 years of retirement before his death on April 6, 1993 and during those years he maintained his contacts with Research Division personnel, usually near Remembrance Day, when he would visit the office to sell poppies. He and his wife Jean would both live the remainder of their lives in their family home at 936 Heywood Avenue.