DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT

Michael Dobbin

Michael Dobbin comes to St. Andrew’s-Wesley after a distinguished and rewarding management career in Canadian Theatre and Opera. Having recently moved to Vancouver from Toronto (and spending 6 years prior to that in Ottawa), Michael is very glad to be back in the WEST, where his roots are deep and strong. He is a native Calgarian but lived in Vancouver (where he was Managing Director for the Vancouver Playhouse) from 1973 to 1979. He lived in Kamloops (where he was Artistic Director for Western Canada Theatre) from 1979 to 1983 and then returned to Calgary at that time, where he remained for the next 18 years.

His home church and the place where, in all the transitional years noted above, he retained his membership, was Scarboro United Church in Calgary. Along side devoutly Christian parents and within the family of that church, it was there that Michael honed his first leadership skills, began to develop his artistic aesthetic and sense of adventure. It was there that he learned to discover God within himself and there that he began his never-ending journey of in pursuit of understanding Christ’s example and learning how to apply it to life in this world. Michael feels that the extraordinary combination of these experiences is what led to his significant artistic and leadership accomplishments in the Canadian Theatre—his ministry through art, as he sees it -- for more than 30 years.

Among his talents, Dobbin has a knack for making people comfortable when they talk about money—giving away money—sharing wealth, donating material goods. He takes great pleasure in leading people toward making amazing things happen through their own generosity. Stewardship can be such a joyful word in the church community. It is often called philanthropy in the secular world and Michael has been involved in some remarkable projects where huge amounts of money were freely given in order to make dynamic changes in communities where he has resided. He’s done this several times over and helped raise millions of dollars for the arts during his theatrical career. For some time, he was head of Stewardship at Scarboro United in Calgary and was able to open the conversation, widen the circle, and engage the congregation in unprecedented levels of giving – helping to make exciting things happen at that church, some of which had been spoken of for decades but never accomplished before his leadership.

Dobbin has transferred his membership to St. Andrew’s Wesley. He lives at The Performing Arts Lodge PAL, Vancouver, in Coal Harbour. He is single at this time and feels blessed to have moved to Vancouver again, to been given the opportunity to take up residence at PAL, to have been engaged by St. Andrew’s-Wesley, and to have the opportunity to serve God and his community in this new capacity. His position as Director of Development is half-time, allowing him extended periods of leave wherein he can honour directing and acting contracts in Canada and abroad.

He is available for conversations on the topic of Financial Stewardship, Planned Giving, Special Fund-raising, Memorial Gifts, and more at michael.staw@telus.net.