Michael was born on March 7, 1933, in Cheadle Hulme, Cheshire, England, to Dorothy (Doe) Carmen (ne Lundie) and John Royale (Roy) Siddall. Roy had been living in Summerland, BC, where he had been attempting to be a fruit orchardist. There, he met and married Doe. Because the depression was in full force in North America, Roy and Doe moved back to England with Michael to start their lives there.
Michael spent his early years in Manchester. With Doe and Roy eventually divorcing, Doe brought 13-year-old Michael to Canada to settle in Vancouver. Once graduating from John Oliver Secondary, Michael began his career as a journalist, first working for the Vancouver Sun, then working in Montreal for the British United Press. Michael eventually returned to Vancouver, where he would meet and marry his first wife, Pearl (née Jeffery), in 1963. They returned to England, where he had a short but successful career at J Walter Thompson. They then decided to come back to Vancouver to start a family and had two daughters, Jane and Kate Siddall.
Michael became editor and eventually publisher of a forest industry trade magazine, The High-Baller. With the onset of the deep recession of the 1980s, Michael took his career into his own hands. He became an entrepreneur, starting a successful trade magazine out of the basement of his family home called Technology West. Michael’s creative intelligence and passion would carry him on to successfully publishing trade magazines out of the family home until well into his seventies, managing to raise and sustain his family in the process.
Michael was also an active environmentalist; at one point, going so far as to participate in a blockade preventing logging in the Sechelt watershed. This activity eventually led to a battle in court, which, unfortunately, was lost.
Throughout his life, Michael had a passion for nature and the outdoors, going on hikes as much as family life allowed. Frequent, adventurous road trips were a delight for the whole family, particularly when they explored BC’s interior and the South-Western US, where camping out under the stars was precious. Michael was a spiritual seeker. Throughout his adult life, he explored various meditative and spiritual practices, including leading an 8-year spiritual study group with Pearl and an investigative group looking at spiritual and alternative phenomena. After moving to the Sunshine Coast and the passing of Pearl, he eventually met and united with his second partner, Fern Walker. In the last decades of his life, he and Fern led a committed spiritual life upon Buddhist principles amongst their supportive Buddhist Community (Sangha).
Throughout his childhood, Michael had a tremendous fear of death, yet his life and death clearly demonstrated it’s never too late to grow. In the latter years of his life, suffering from Parkinson’s, Michael bore the journey of his illness with dignity and grace. During his final days, he surrendered, putting his spiritual life work into practice. He lived his life to the fullest and left this life with great peace.
Michael touched many lives with his leadership, humour, inquisitiveness, energy and heart. He will be missed by all who had the privilege to know him.
Michael is survived (and greatly missed) by his partner Fern and two daughters, Jane and Kate Siddall.
A Celebration of Life will be held at the Botanical Gardens in Sechelt on September 5, 2024, at 1:30 pm. 5941 Mason Road, Sechelt, BC. All are welcome.
In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to Dogwood BC, a local climate and social justice organization, or a charity of your choice.
