Received via email:

"Karol entertained the troops - especially the young ones - while at RRMC and also at the nearby YMCA, at 851 Broughton Street in Victoria. He was well known around Victoria as a lively and possibly too adventurous homosexual, but this was all in the days before AIDS came to Canada. Karol was considered a 'sensitive youth' (as named in our school yearbook) and he was extremely ill-suited to a career in the military. Karol botched his engineering project badly (mis-manufacturing a cannon that could have killed someone) and he became the laughing stock of his class, and the butt of frequent and hurtful 'Polak jokes' from his fellow classmates. Matter of fact, you can see Karol's yearbooks here for 1967 and 1968. Remember, it was a two year college, not accredited or able to offer a 4 year degree in those days.

Karol was so sick of the incessant Polak jokes, he began pretending he was Spanish, and he'd sometimes even introduce himself as a foreign student from Spain. Often he'd invent girlfriends in other towns, conveniently whom no one had ever met, bragging about their big hooters and his sexual escapades. His behaviour toward women proved he could never be an officer. His braggadocio was all an obvious cover-up for his real sexual preferences and nobody believed him, of course. Sometime's Karol would even dress up and go hitch-hiking, lying to the men who picked him up, telling them that he was a commissioned officer! This would have gotten him kicked out of RR instantly, but he actually seemed to enjoy lying. Reality didn't apply to life where Karol was concerned. He always made it up as he went along.

School was like a big game of dress up for Karol, although he did study more than most of the boys, because he always had a chip on his shoulder like he had something to prove. I think we all knew he was queer, but we overlooked it, except for one or two of the upperclassmen who teased him mercilessly. Ironically, Royal Roads is now a veritable haven for homosexuals, but not when Karol and I attended.

Karol was an actor at school, mostly playing women's roles known as 'breeches parts,' earning the appelation A.D.C. (amateur dramatist club). He made the yearbook committee scrub his roles from our yearbooks, saying his father "wouldn't understand." Most of us thought his father understood all too well. In fact, there was a particularly salacious rumour that Karol's father had raped Karol's first and only girlfriend, impregnating her, until she obtained an abortion. Karol never actually consummated a sexual act with a female, as far as we knew, so perhaps her relationship with Karol's father was consensual? Truth be told, Karol would come to the cast parties, still dressed in women's clothes, constantly prattling on about cocksucking and rimjobs, and at Halloween, you could be sure Karol would be the one dressed in drag.

Unfortunately, Karol became ashamed of his acting after he was outed as a homosexual while working at the Victoria Real Estate Board. He was absolutely furious at his partner for outing him, and sometime in the summer of 1989, Madera tried to sue the VREB on the basis that he was actually heterosexual and they were all picking on him somehow. He stopped going to the bath house (temporarily) and he canceled his membership at the YMCA, where he'd spend hours with a variety of men, nearly every day. Most of us were on the island for school, but Karol stayed on the island for the gay lifestyle. The southern tip of the island is known as the San Francisco of Canada. Strange place for an unmarried man approaching 70 who's never had a girlfriend but claims to love women with 'big hooters.' He lost the sexuality suit, of course. These days you might classify him as a closeted, self loathing homosexual, but back then we called him queer, artistic, sensitive, and odd, when we were feeling kind.

Karol's claims were frankly unbelievable according to all of the witnesses against him. Of course, at school, we all knew Karol was as Queer as a three dollar bill, but we never held it against him. As his anger and alcoholism progressed, Karol became known as a habitual liar with a violent temper, and as such, he lost any chance of a career in the military. He eventually obtained a license to sell real estate, but he was ousted from the real estate board due to his out-of-control behavior and threats. He studied law, but he wasn't allowed to join the law society due to the threats, dishonesty, racism, lies, his temper, growing mental illness, and a variety of other issues making him wholly unsuitable to ever hold a position as an officer of the court.

Since about 1990, Karol's stewed in an alcoholic and narcotic fueled frenzy of self-loathing and threats against others. He was in a ferry accident (ironic, I know) and he hurt his neck. I believe it was the Queen of Saanich, but I can't remember for certain. Since then, Karol's behavior has gone downhill, with increasing use of narcotics and frequent bouts of drunkeness, anger, and his incipient mental illness, he's become an unfortunate caricature of himself. Those of us who grew up with him have watched him take a very self-destructive path for years, and we're actually in awe that he's still alive given his unhealthy lifestyle, and his drug and alcohol abuse. We've pretty much given up on the hope that he'll seek help, but I thought you might like to hear about Karol from the perspective of those of us who 'knew him when.'"

[ John Jamieson, Royal Roads, 1968 ]