Remembering Bob Tyrrell

Orca Book Publishers was saddened to hear of the sudden death of founder Bob Tyrrell on August 31, 2024. Bob started Orca Book Publishers forty years ago in 1984 and built a remarkable company. Starting with a guidebook of the pubs of Vancouver Island, he went on to produce some outstanding titles about British Columbia. In the early ’90s, he began publishing for children and won the Governor General’s award in 1992 for Waiting for the Whales written by Sheryl McFarlane and illustrated by Ron Lightburn. Following that the company began publishing almost exclusively for children.

From that humble start in 1984, Orca Book Publishers grew to be one of the largest independent publishers in Canada. Bob was a passionate publisher, an astute businessperson and an ardent supporter of BC and Canadian publishing... Read more.

About Orca Book Publishers

Orca acknowledges that the area in which we work is occupied by people, ourselves included, who are largely not indigenous to this area. We live and work within the Traditional Territories of the Lkwungen (Esquimalt and Songhees), Malahat, Pacheedaht, Scia’new, T’Sou-ke and WSÁNEĆ (Pauquachin, Tsartlip, Tsawout, Tseycum) Peoples. We are grateful for the natural beauty and resources we have access to and aim, through the books we publish, to play a part in raising readers and citizens who will have a great understanding of our history and this land. Learn more about Orca Book Publishers.