SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Yellowknife's second mayor Gordon Albert Allen, whose brief reign dates back almost 60 years, has died. He was 94.
Former city mayor George Albert Allen died at his home in Burlington, Ont., Feb. 19. Allen took over the mayoral position following the resignation of Yellowknife's first mayor Jock McNiven. Allen, who was an accountant with Giant Mine, moved to New Jersey in 1957 to work with Atlas Copco. - photo courtesy of Donna Collins
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Born in Toronto on July 13, 1918, Allen served as mayor of Yellowknife from 1954 to 1955 where he was involved with a number of organizations in the community, including a stint as chair of the hospital board and school board before leaving town in 1957.
Allen died at home in Burlington, Ont., of natural causes on Feb. 19, but had been experiencing early onset dementia in recent years, said son Ken Allen, who lives in P.E.I.
"But he was still alert in a lot of ways," Ken said, adding he was suffering from Parkinson's Disease.
Gordon is also survived by his wife Merrill, 96, with whom he had been married for 69 years and eight months. The two had met in high school at Riverdale Collegiate in Toronto before getting married at Donlands United Church in the same city, in 1943.
After high school, Gordon briefly worked at the Stadacona Mine in Rouyn, Que., before joining the Canadian Air Force as a flight navigator with the Ferry Command. Following the war, Gordon returned to Stadacona but was soon transferred to Yellowknife.
“As a family it was great. It really was great,” recalled Merrill of living in the city.
“For the first few weeks, I had wondered what I had done to myself because there weren't too many (southern) women. I think there were only 10 of us at the mine. Once we got our feet wet and got our things together, we all got along just great.”
Merrill said Allen had been deputy mayor of the early town council under the first mayor Jock McNiven, most likely because he led the poll in the first municipal election. When McNiven was transferred to Port Radium after only a few months on the job, Allen took over the position.
He finished out the one-year term before the family left town for Allendale, N.J. in 1957, where Allen took on a job with Swedish mining equipment firm Atlas Copco, she said.
“At the time it seemed like a good idea (to leave) but I must confess, I sat in that plane and cried when I left Yellowknife. Everybody did,” she said.
Daughter Donna Collins said she hasn't been back to Yellowknife since the family left but she has warm memories of spending her early years with her dad in town.
"At that time Yellowknife was a great place," she said. "I remember going across the ice roads, and being in Old Town and riding in the dog sled.
"He was an accountant for the mine but he was also an accountant for a floating sawmill (Res Delta Timber Company). I would go with him a lot of times in the summer in the floatplane down to wherever the sawmill was to do their books."
Throughout their lives, Gordon travelled extensively. He and his family spent 13 years with Atlas Copco. before returning to Canada in 1969 when he took a job with the Lacana Mining Company in Toronto. He stayed with the company until his retirement in 1984.
Ken, who was born in Yellowknife in 1953, described his late father as a successful man who was popular and well-travelled.
"He was well-respected no matter where he was," said Ken.
Allen is also survived by daughter-in-law Janet Allen, grandchildren Amanda and Beth Collins, and great-grandchildren Abbey Raymond and Jackson Beaulieu.
