Gordon Lindemere
Family man, entrepreneur, aviator, outdoorsman. Born on Nov. 19, 1924, in North Battleford, Sask.; died on May 16, 2015, in North Vancouver, B.C., of natural causes, aged 90.
Gordon was the youngest of five children and grew up during the Great Depression in Meota, a small Saskatchewan prairie town on the edge of Jackfish Lake. His parents, Gladys and Richard, were genteel but moneyless artists (he painted in oils, she in watercolours) who had emigrated from England. In 1932, Gordon's parents separated and he moved to New Westminster, B.C., with his mother and siblings. At 15, he left school to work in a lumber mill.
The Second World War was, as for so many, life changing for Gordon. In 1941, his brother Billy died while serving on a Canadian Merchant Navy ship in the English Channel. Not long after, Gordon met the love of his life, Mae Midgley, while delivering packages to a shipyard in North Vancouver where she worked as a secretary. Gordon joined the Royal Canadian Air Force and trained as an aircraft mechanic.
He and Mae wed in 1944 while he was on leave from Montreal, where he was stationed (the war ended before he could be shipped out). They were married more than 70 years and had four children (Kenneth, Deirdre, Paige and Meredith, who died of cancer in 1986) and 10 grandchildren.
Gordon was a true self-made man. He built a successful bearing-distribution business, Industrial Equipment Company Ltd., on the strength of a Grade 10 education and larger-than-life personality. He was president and CEO for 49 years, establishing 19 offices throughout British Columbia and Alberta, two large fabrication and machine shops, and subsidiaries in the United States and South America. He went to work every day in a pressed shirt and bow tie. He was charismatic, loud, opinionated, stubborn, and kept a well-stocked bar.
When he sold the company and retired in 2002, many employees sent letters to him expressing their respect and gratitude for his generosity and mentorship. One wrote that even when times were tough, there was a "sense of security, knowing that Gordon Lindemere was flying the plane."
He was, in fact, a pilot. In 1971, he took part in the B.C. Centennial Air Race, flying from London, England, to Victoria in a Cessna 340 twin prop with his friend, Jack Sloan. Gordon and Mae later bought a summer cabin at Lang Bay on the Sunshine Coast, and sometimes he would fly low over the beach and tip his wings to his grandchildren jumping and waving below.
An avid outdoorsman, he hunted duck in the Saskatchewan wheat fields and in the Fraser River estuary. He and his friends donated Kirkland Island, 400 acres in Delta, B.C., to the Nature Trust of British Columbia. Every duck hunter needs a good dog, and Gordon won National Field Trials with his Labrador retriever, Jet. He golfed (badly) and fished for salmon on his boat, the Windy Lindy. Till near the end, he could be found in his garden, a treasure trove of potatoes, corn, tomatoes, and broad beans. He used to boil freshly picked spinach and then drink the water. He swore it kept him young, and perhaps it did.
Gordon led a well-lived life, and yet his successes did not give him airs. He would stand on the porch of his beloved cabin at Lang Bay, bare-chested and deeply tanned in a pair of thread-bare shorts. He welcomed neighbours, come to swap news – "You're late!" he might joke, then fetch the visitor a drink: two ice cubes, two fingers of Ballantine's, and a quick pass under the cold-water tap.
Adrienne McChesney is Gordon's granddaughter.