Remembering Bob Teskey

Bob Teskey

"Is there anything that I can do to help?”

When Peter Senior remembers Bob Teskey, that phrase is one of the first things that comes to mind. It’s something the director of the Alberta Diabetes Institute (ADI) says he heard a lot from Teskey over the years, and it was central to Teskey’s character — the desire to help, in any way possible, and with no need for accolades or praise. 

Senior met Teskey, a former managing partner with Field Law who passed away in December, through his work with the Edmonton Protocol — a groundbreaking diabetes treatment that has since become the gold standard globally for insulin independence. Teskey, who had been diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at the age of 14, was among the very first to take part in a clinical trial in 1999 in which donor islets-cells within the pancreas were transplanted into the liver with the hope they'd produce insulin.

As a pioneer patient in an unknown landscape, Teskey knew the Edmonton Protocol might not work for him — but “he believed research would drive progress and he wanted to be part of the solution,” says Senior, “even if it turned out he didn’t directly benefit from it himself.” As it turned out, Teskey would achieve insulin independence for about five years following his first successful transplant, with many more to come over the years. But as Senior says, what he achieved for the Alberta Diabetes Institute and consequently for other patients around the world would be far greater. 

From the moment they met, Senior could see that Teskey was going to be much more than a patient. “He was clearly very interested in other people — very appreciative of the benefits of transplant,” Senior recalls. “He wanted it to be available for everybody." This led the busy lawyer to carve out precious time in his days to advocate tirelessly, to high-level administration across the university, for greater funding toward this life-saving research. 

As Senior says, Teskey quickly and willingly took on the role of “poster boy” for transplants. While not one for the spotlight, his passion for advancing research and equitable access to care — combined with his ability to articulate and his knowledge of the university’s dynamics — made him an instrumental figure in the launch of the Alberta Diabetes Foundation and consequently the ADI, in 2007.

“The institute wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the foundation, and the foundation wouldn't be here if it wasn't for people like Bob,” says Senior. “He was a great ally.”

Many years before Teskey crossed paths with Senior, he was a student in the classroom of David Percy, law professor and former dean in the Faculty of Law. Percy remembers Teskey as a quiet, serious young man — someone who was “obviously very bright, but content to stay in the background. He had a quiet gravitas about him and he would only speak if he felt he could add something,” says Percy. 

As the years went by, Percy and Teskey would often see each other on flights to Toronto for business. Teskey was working for Field Law and, not even out of law school 10 years, he had already become invaluable legal support for Oxford Properties, the real estate developer behind local 1970s landmarks such as Edmonton City Centre. When their main office moved east, Teskey stayed on as chief outside counsel. “There they were in Toronto with all the Bay Street lawyers available, doing big deals across the country — and yet they chose to keep Bob,” says Percy. “They obviously had the greatest respect for him.” 

While maintaining a busy practice, Teskey was also managing partner for the firm for more than 25 years — a feat Percy says is rare indeed. “Let’s put it this way: Being a managing partner, leading a large group of lawyers with a lot of strong opinions, is a high burnout position,” he says with a chuckle. Yet despite living with a very challenging form of diabetes, Teskey balanced that busy career while raising the profile of the ADI as a respected director emeritus and even contributing as a member of the U of A’s board of governors for a few years in the 2010s.

Throughout his life and career, Teskey was a man who was “generous with his time, and generous with his money,” says Senior. “I expect he would say that in life, when you give, you always end up getting back more than what you put in — and that is a great legacy to leave behind.”