Eulogy, September 28, 2024. Harry Basil Menzies Memorial Reception, Prince Rupert

Harry Basil Menzies, born of a Scottish-Canadian father Harry Menzies (whose family arrived in southern Ontario in the early 1800s) and a Tsimshian mother Elizabeth Gamble (whose family is rooted in this land since time immemorial).  

b. September 12, 1929; d. July 23, 2024.

 

Dad grew up on the north coast. He spent time with his parents out in Grassy Bay and over at McNichol Creek. From a young age he had a lot of freedom to do what he wanted and go where he pleased – mostly this was out on the water. He would tell me about visiting with his grandfather Edward Gamble on his boat when it came into harbour and tied up at CowBay or how Edward and Alice Gamble would visit up at the house on 8^th that Dad grew up in. 

 

He shared stories of his own Dad’s family coming to Victoria and then how the brothers worked their way up the coast to Prince Rupert via Rivers Inlet. He did a relief shift on the MV Thomas Crosby once. ON that trip he was able to go ashore at Rivers Inlet and see the headstone of an uncle who had died while working there.

 

Dad and I spent a lot of time talking about family, who they are and how we were related. These stories were often framed by events. He never just recited family trees, he told stories about the people and how we were connected emerged through the telling. 

 

Dad worked most of his life. I rarely heard him complain about it. He took pride in his stories of work. He told how one morning as he slept in his father came to him and demanded he decide ‘go to school, or go to work.’ Dad replied ‘work’ – his own father then said okay, get dressed, there’s a job for you down at Fairview. So began Dads nearly 60 years of work in the fishing industry.

 

Dad spent much of his time since the 1980s living in the lowermainland. But the north coast was always home. Until a few years ago Dad kept the family home on Eight Avenue East. Several generations of Dad’s family grew up in that house. My sisters and I did. My memories of our childhood home is interwoven with his stories and photos of my father’s own childhood there.

 

Dad kept coming home. His fished halibut out of Prince Rupert until he was in his 70s. But even when he stopped fishing he kept coming up the coast every year to have the Miss Georgina pulled out of the water at McLean’s shipyard. I typically stepped in as his deckhand and traveling companion on those trips. Sometimes my own sons came along, sometimes other family members. We would head up the coast pulling into his favourite anchorages, every place had a story.

Neither man nor boat were really in the best of shape. One trip we had to drape a giant tarp over the bow to hold the water from leaking in through the stem. Dad enjoyed these trips but it was clear they were hard on him.

 

One fall, after working on the boat to get it ready to return south he gathered a crew – Eddie Davies and Norman Viktil, I was too busy at UBC to join in. He headed south just before thanksgiving. They got down to Namu. The weather was rough. The boat mechanics were breaking down. They had to tie up at Namu. They had a rough night at the dock. Dad decided to turn around and run back to Shearwater where he and his crew spent thanksgiving waiting for a mechanic to return to do a repair on the boat. Instead of finishing the trip south, they ran back to Rupert where the Miss Georgina sat at McLeans until she made her final trip across to Haida Gwaii tied alongside of the Star Wars. 

 

But that didn’t hold Dad back. He kept coming back to Rupert. When he couldn’t convince me to take him north Eddie drove down to Bowen to bring him here for his second to last trip. Dad loved that road trip. Today he is on his final journey, coming home to stay.

   

Thank you for being with us here as we remember Harry Basil Menzies.