Friends and family are remembering the many achievements of community champion Hulda ‘Huddy’ Roddan in the weeks after her death.
The longtime Crescent Beach resident passed away March 27, just shy of her 92nd birthday.
Huddy was a staunch advocate for affordable housing on the Peninsula, which son, George, credits to her upbringing in rural Saskatchewan.
“She picked up that attitude from her family, who were huge CCF and then NDP supporters. They were very big on social-welfare issues,” George said.
Huddy and husband Sam did extensive work in the Downtown Eastside, where he lived after moving from Manitoba to B.C. in 1929, and on the Peninsula with Camp Alexandra after the couple married and moved to Crescent Beach in 1954. There, the couple raised their three children – George, Janet and Maggie – with Huddy balancing a full plate of family and social activism, George noted.
“In our family, dad was kind of the dreamer and artist and poet. Mom was really the practical person and she was always helping people,” he said.
George recalled an early memory when his mother took him to deliver Christmas hampers to those in need in their community.
To his shock, many of the people receiving the holiday boost were his own friends.
“I didn’t realize they were poor, but during the ’50s and ’60s in Crescent Beach, there were many poor people,” he said. “Crescent Beach and White Rock back then don’t bear any resemblance to today.”
Seeing the growing need for community services in her own backyard, the former Vancouver General Hospital nurse spurred to action, joining the community mental-health board in the mid-1960s and later creating the Semiahmoo Peninsula Affordable Housing Society in 1987, along with friend and former White Rock councillor Margaret Lower.
Through the society, Huddy worked to organize support for low-income families, despite community opposition, recalled Surrey Coun. Judy Villeneuve.
“She worked with partners and with BC Housing to establish Newton Green and Rosemary Green,” Villeneuve said. “They went through some very difficult public hearings because of people’s fears of subsidized housing.
“But Huddy stood strong. She was determine to get those projects through. And she did.”
For more than 30 years, Villeneuve received guidance from Huddy, who encouraged the Surrey councillor to run for office in 1987.
“When I was elected, Huddy was right by my side. She helped support me through difficult times and worked on a number of policies with me, including multicultural and anti-racism policies, which laid the brickwork for the Social Planning Advisory Committee,” Villeneuve said. “She was a major mentor and a close friend.”
Friends Kathy Booth and Pat Petrala echoed Villeneuve, noting that Huddy’s tenacity often encouraged others to do more.
“She really inspired everyone she met. She was dedicated to improving the lives of not only individuals, but families around the world,” said Booth. “Huddy was a tireless advocate.”
For Petrala, who met Huddy in 2000 after moving to the Peninsula from Ottawa, Huddy became a mother-figure, following the death of her own mother that same year.
“She was a mentor to so many women on the Peninsula,” Petrala said. “Huddy and Margaret (Lower)… connected me, mentored me and encouraged me to get involved.”