With the customary Salve Regina ringing in the rafters, the Oblate family sang adieu to Tommy Lobsinger and Hoby Spruyt. These two Oblate brothers will be sorely and sadly missed. They were prayerfully and lovingly remembered by their surviving families, friends, and Oblates at a funeral mass in St Augustine’s, Vancouver on April 27.

The news of their plane accident near Whitehorse on April 15 was carried across the country in the secular and catholic papers. Most of us could scarcely believe it when Oblate friends phoned the news that day. Lobby had been a careful pilot for 40 years. I had not known Hoby very well but Lobby had been a good friend for nearly 50 years. Every once in a while, I gave him a call in Whitehorse just to keep in touch, and he always welcomed the call. Not many people knew that he was the only Canadian bishop who supported The Journal and sent in his Corpus Canada subscription regularly. I told him this some time ago and he said "It’s the least I can do. Judas, something has got to be done." Hoby worked closely with Lobby in Whitehorse. People knew them as friendly, humble, serious, humorous, down-to-earth workers who always made people feel at home with the Gospel. Bishop Lobsinger did not let being a bishop change his attitude to people’s cares. Hoby walked beside him in service to the People of God. They died doing what they wanted to do. 

Chris Diamond, 
Cobble Hill, BC