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End of life for legend 'Man who refused to die' survived 58 days stranded on tundra
Cody Punter
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, September 18, 2013
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The harsh and unforgiving Northern tundra has stamped the tombstones of many an adventurer in exchange for a paltry place in the history books.
Ron Sheardown, left, Bob Gauchie and Glen Stevens after Gauchie was rescued from the Arctic tundra on April 1, 1967. Gauchie survived 58 days inside his plane before his rescue by Sheardown and Stevens. - photo courtesy of Patricia Gauchie |
When pilot Bob Gauchie found himself stranded on Samandre Lake, nearly 400 kilometres north of Yellowknife in the winter of 1967, it seemed that he was going to meet the same tragic fate as many who had passed before him. He had landed after becoming lost in a whiteout on a flight from Cambridge Bay in a single-engine Beaver.
Indeed, on his 57th day spent surviving temperatures that went as low -60 C, Gauchie confessed in his diary that he was close to death, and would likely only survive a few more days.
But Gauchie was not destined for an early grave and, when he was rescued by a pilot that happened to be flying over his snow-covered plane 58 days after he disappeared, he instantly became a legend for surviving an ordeal that few men could.
Sadly, "the man who refused to die," as he became known, could not live forever. On Aug. 31, Gauchie died at his home in Victoria at the age of 85.
One of Gauchie's three daughters, Patricia Gauchie, said her dad can best be remembered by a saying he used to repeat to his children.
"He used to always say, 'Tough times don't last but tough people do,' "said Patricia. "That's one of the gifts he gave to us, because that is indeed life."
Patricia still remembers the first time she had to cope with what seemed like the death of her father when she was a teenager 46 years ago.
"It was awful," said Patricia. "I was just trying to be really strong because I had a good connection with my dad."
Understandably, the Gauchie family was devastated by the news that Bob and the plane were missing. Bob's wife Fran was so upset that she refused to sleep in their bed, opting instead to camp out on the couch in the living room. Eventually everyone resigned themselves to the fact that he was never coming back.
Then on April 1, 1967, the phone rang while Patricia was washing her hair. Thinking that it was her boyfriend, she rushed to the phone with her hair dripping wet.
"Then this person, I guess it was the RCMP, tells me that they found my dad. And I burst out crying because it was April Fool's Day," said Patricia, who thought someone was playing a prank on her.
"I just couldn't process it," she said.
When she finally realized he was actually alive, she was beside herself and overcome with emotion. From that day on April Fool's Day became a time of giving thanks in the Gauchie household.
"It was a big April Fool's Day gift," said Patricia from her home in Victoria.
"April first became not the jokester day, but the big thank you day. It became the biggest day every year that we would celebrate."
Patricia described her father as a self-taught man who was larger than life. Born in Edmonton, Gauchie left school at the age of 12. When he turned 17, he joined the RCAF where he learned to pilot a plane. Then, in 1961 he left the army and moved to Fort Smith where he worked as a bush pilot across the North.
Less than a year after being rescued from the tundra, Gauchie founded Buffalo Airways in 1968 with his close friend and business partner Joe McBryan. However, just two years later, Gauchie decided to move his family south to the Okanagan, and he sold the licence for the business to McBryan.
"He was a hell of a good pilot with his hands and feet, but he was a piss-poor navigator. The newspapers will attest to that," joked McBryan in an interview on Tuesday.
McBryan said Gauchie was a friend to everyone and that he was the kind of person that people always wanted to have at their table during a party. He was an engaging figure and conversations with him were often played out like a chess game.
"You could sit there and visit with him and exercise your mind," said McBryan.
Whether it was flying, hunting, politics or hockey, Gauchie always immersed himself in what he did.
The same was true of his role as a father.
"He had high expectations of us but he was very playful and very supportive," said Patricia.
One of Patricia's fondest memories of her dad was his tendency to fly low over their home in the evening to alert the family that he was coming home for dinner.
Whenever Patricia heard the plane, she would rush to the window. Sure enough, her dad would usually make another pass, dipping his wings "in a really saucy way," knowing full well that his daughter was watching him.
"Then we would know - turn on the oven or get the pasta ready. It was just his way of saying, 'I'm home,'" said Patricia.
Gauchie spent the last six years of his life in a nursing home in Victoria, where was close to his family.
His room at the home was decorated prominently with paintings and photographs of two things: planes and wolves. Patricia said that her dad had developed a spiritual affinity toward wolves ever since he was rescued. She said during Gauchie's time on the tundra, a pack of wolves began to stalk him and his plane, often coming within range of the shotgun he had with him.
"He told me about how he had a complete slip in his head, because he was a hunter," said Patricia. "His first inclination was food, 'I'm going to shoot these guys so I can survive.'"
"But then he has this rethink and says, 'Jesus, they're in the same situation I'm in. They're trying to survive, too.'"
Patricia explains how he developed a bond with the wolves, which in a strange way kept him motivated to survive.
"He got solace from that. He didn't see them in a negative way, he saw them like himself - a loner trying to survive using their wits."
Even though he lost several toes as a result of frostbite suffered on the tundra, which relegated Gauchie to a wheelchair later in life, he remained the same resilient character he had always been.
Patricia said it was not uncommon for him to be surrounded by people in the nursing home eager to hear him retell stories of his past adventures.
"He held court a lot," joked Patricia. "You sometimes had to cue up to get in to see him."
Gauchie even kept touch with his old friend, McBryan, who flew down to visit him on occasion.
"He would never ask you to come but he would always be happy to see you," McBryan said.
After Gauchie died, the family decided not to hold a service for him immediately. Instead they are going to wait until 2014 to hold a celebration of his life in Victoria. Patricia says the memorial will take place on the day that by some strange twist of fate became an annual day of celebration and thanks for the Gauchies - April Fool's Day.
"April first was always a rocking good party because it was the anniversary of his life," said Patricia.
"I hope it's going to be one heck of a party, because that's what he would have wanted."
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