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 Hugh Hodgkinson 1936 - 2009 It was a bright day on February 17th 1936 at Basingstoke in England when Ronald & Mary Hodgkinson welcomed their only child into their lives. By the time Hugh was three years of age World War 2 had broken out and the family of three was evacuated to Cornwall, England for the duration of the war. Ronald & Mary divorced after the war. Mary then married Geoffrey Ford of Chesterfield in Derbyshire and became stepmother to his two children, Gillian and John. Hugh's family grew to six. Hugh graduated from William Rhodes School in Chesterfield at the age of sixteen. I first met Hugh when we both went to Agricultural College at Broomfield Hall in Derbyshire, in England in the fall of 1953. We became firm friends as the college year progressed and became true buddies as the years past by. This allowed me the privilege knowing something of his earlier years. They were not easy years for Hugh. He had some serious health problems as a pre-teenager which resulted in a life threatening situation and resulted in an operation which left him with only one and a half lungs. Hugh’s strength of character and determination even at that early age was very evident, as it was during the rest of his life, and that strength of character and determination were instrumental in Hugh being the kind of man we all knew and respected right up to his passing on. In March 1956 Hugh came to Canada, to Lower Nicola, a small village near Merritt B.C., to work on a ranch. During his time in Lower Nicola, he met and married Edith Chlopan. Hugh and Edith moved to St George’s Indian Residential School at Lytton B.C. in 1959, to manage the farm that was associated with the school. Our friendship was such that even though we had gone our separate ways since leaving college, we had kept in touch, and in early March of 1960 we (I also was married in 1959) got a letter from Hugh basically saying “Come on over to Canada, Clem, there’s a job here for you on the farm at the school.” On the strength of the letter, I was a landed immigrant, in Lytton B.C. on April 07 1960, and Hugh and I worked together for about a year, when it started to become very difficult for Hugh to manage the farm without interference from the principal of the school, Budget restraints with the management of the farm eventually caused Hugh to leave and move his family to Cranbrook, BC where Edith’s family were. Hugh worked around there for a while and then went logging in the Lillooet area. During that time, Hugh became the proud father of 2 sons, Christopher, born July 08 1961, and David, born July 31 1962. Unfortunately, Hugh and Edith parted, and were divorced. I was working in the BA service station in Cache Creek, and Hugh being in the Lillooet area, he would come over and stay with us. He met Bette-Ann in Cache Creek and they began dating. She had come up from Vancouver Island to work for the summer at Hungry Herbie’s, a hamburger drive-in, next to the BA station. Hugh moved over from logging to construction and eventually went up to Hudson’s Hope in September 1965, driving truck for Ed Kitt hauling gravel to Northern’s batch plant. Bette-Ann followed Hugh up to Hudson’s Hope in 1966 and they set up house and were married in the Lutheran church in Hudson’s Hope on Aug 20 1966. Hugh moved over to work for Northern Construction as a teamster, mostly driving bus and truck. As the work on the dam wound down in late 1968/1969 Hugh and BA decided to go into business, and with Greg Blancher, bought the taxi/water hauling/trailer hauling business from Arnold Geddes. After a while they bought out Greg and were on their own. On June 20 1972, Hugh and BA were blessed with a son, Mark. Hugh’s strength of character and determination now had a chance to shine through once again, and with Bette-Ann and Mark by his side, the various sections of their business, under the name of Peace View Enterprises, were successful. Notably the school busses, the BC Hydro dam tour bus, and the general contracting. In the ‘70s and ‘80s Hugh was always pretty busy with both the business and his many other interests. Hugh became a member of the Hudson’s Hope Lions Club in June 1972, assumed the position of Secretary from 1973 to 1974 and eventually served two terms as President from 1977 to 1978 and 1981 to 1982. Besides being on the board of Directors from 1973 until his passing, he also served as Zone Chairman from 1988 to 1990. He was responsible for sponsoring ten men into the Lions, including his son, Mark. Through his dedication to the Lions Club, he chaired over thirty committees, including buying the first Lions van, Lions rep on the Arena Building Committee, Lotteries, Benefit Dances, RCMP Band Concert and Town cleanup. Hugh entered into local politics and was elected Alderman from 1974 to 1975. He went back into the politics scene in 1982, becoming Mayor of Hudson’s Hope, holding the post for five and half years from January 1982 to December 1988. During that time, Hugh served on various committees. He was Chairman of the Board of the Northern Lights College, he was a member of the Environmental Appeal Board of BC. He served on the Fort St. John and local hospital boards and he was Chairman of the Hudson’s Hope Senior Citizens Housing Committee. The middle seventies saw the start of what was to be a passion, shared by BA, for travelling, by motor home and also by air and sea. As Mark grew up he was able to help with the business to the point that Hugh could take time away from it, and fulfill the travel urge. Hugh and BA travelled extensively both on the North American continent and overseas and derived much enjoyment out of those travels. A couple of trips that stands out in my mind from talking to Hugh and Bette-Ann were the Round the World by air trip that they took and the river cruise from Vienna to Amsterdam. Hugh talked to me often about these trips and how glad and happy he was that they had taken them. Lorna & I had the privilege to share many trips with Hugh & Bette-Ann. Last November, we celebrated a memorable thirty year reunion trip to Hawaii. The motor home travelling led to Hugh and BA getting a place at Monte Vista in Mesa, Arizona, and they became ‘Snowbirds’. Eventually they put a park model on the lot and established a lovely second home. They have lots of friends down there and Hugh enjoyed jeeping with some of his buddies out in the desert. Hugh and Bette-Ann got so acclimatized to the warmer climate that when they returned to Canada, they yearned for the warmth that was obviously beneficial for his health. In the Spring of 1998, the spot they chose was Crystal Sands at Mara Lake, south of Sicamous. Here they established their second Canadian home, a beachfront property, looking north up the lake. Once again, Hugh became heavily involved in the development of the resort. This little bit of paradise enabled them to make many new and firm friends. It was here that Hugh spent his final days. Family meant a lot to Hugh. The death of his eldest son, Christopher on June 6th 1983 at the age of 21 from a longtime illness with asthma was a great shock. David, his second son, moved to the Peace Country in 1986 and resumed a closer relationship with his father. David has blessed Hugh by giving him four grandsons: Brian, born October 6 1983, David born May 20 1986, Mathew born December 9, 1996 and Michael born August 30, 2000. On the recent marriage of his son, Mark, he gained another grandson; Shawn aged “almost 3”. Not one girl in the bunch. Hugh’s most precious blessing was the love and friendship of his soul mate, Bette-Ann. Theirs was a true partnership – you rarely thought of or mentioned one’s name without the other. Besides his Canadian family and many friends, Hugh will be sadly missed by his brother, John and family, his Aunt Betty and cousins Keith & Carolyn & Lisa & Andrew of England. As for me, no one could have had a truer and more steadfast friend. |
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