Bert’s return coincided with the introduction of a new academic stream leading to a Bachelor of Commerce degree. He eagerly entered the new course of studies and graduated in 1951 with the highest academic standing in the B. Comm. Program.

Upon graduation, he was recruited to serve with the Government of RBI. and spent the next 37 years as a public servant. Bert’s first position was with the Workmen’s Compensation Board. When the government later introduced its Provincial Sales Tax, he was assigned to the Treasury Department as chief auditor, overseeing the new tax.. He eventually returned to the workmen’s Compensation Board and remained there until his retirement.

In June, 1952 Bert married Laura Madeline McMurrer and they had five children: Maureen, Valerie, Kent, Scott and Paul. Maureen is a lawyer and practices in Charlottetown. Valerie is an RCMP Officer in High Prairie, Alberta. Kent is a landlord and school bus driver in Cornwall, PEI. Scott is Assistant General Manager of Hotel Toronto East, and Paul is an Investment Adviser in Kentville, Nova Scotia.

Following her marriage, Madeline maintained her career over the years as a counsellor with Manpower Canada on the UPEI Campus. She had a reputation for being able to find jobs for students in a difficult labour market. There is a plaque on the UPEI campus commemorating her devoted service and her tragic death in a November 1988 highway accident.

Afier six years as a widower, Bert married Beverly Gallant, a widow, on May 21, 1994. They spent four and a half happy years together before Bert’s peaceful death in hospital on November 12, 1998. Bert’s and Madeline’s firnerals were separated ten years to the day.

Bert took pride in his Scottish heritage and had a keen eye for real estate, at one time owning cottage lots in the St. Peters Harbour area and renting out two cottages at Canoe Cove. Above all, he was a poet at heart and in temperament, publishing his 45 ballads in 1984 under the title, “My PEI Home.” A classmate summed him up thusly: “Devoted husband, father, and grandfather... Proud Islander, war veteran, and public servant... College classmate, friend and poet whose ballads of Atlantic Canada will one day receive the recognition they so richly deserve.”