SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Former YK Photo owner, city councillor and pilot Gerry Reimann died earlier this month on Vancouver Island.

Gerry Reimann with his wife Ruth Reimann in their Courtney, B.C. home in December last year. Gerry, a former Yellowknife businessman and councillor, died earlier this month in B.C. - photo courtesy of Bill Braden

Friends remember him as a hardworking, community-orientated man.

Open heart surgery three years ago left Reimann weak. He had an infection in one lung and water in another, his wife said Monday that put him in the St. Joseph's General Hospital before his death on April 20.

"My brain is good, but my heart is crying," said Ruth Reimann. "We had a wonderful 42 years together. I'll never forget that."

Reimann was born 35 kilometres east of Berlin on Sept. 9, 1926.

Ruth and Gerry grew up in the same community but would only marry after moving to Canada, when his first marriage had ended and her first husband died.

Reimann came to Yellowknife in the mid-1950s, taking a job at the Discovery Mine about 80 kilometres northeast of the city. He would spend 31 years of his life in the territory.

"He fell in love with the North," Ruth said. "He said it was the best place in Canada."

His resume was diverse. He was a coroner and served on the liquor licensing board. Reimann became a business partner of Henry Busse who ran a photography shop in Old Town.

He took over the business and ran YK Photo Centre for more than two decades after Busse's death in 1962.

Reimann handed over the store to Bob Wilson in the 1980s, at which point the couple relocated to Courtney, B.C.

Reimann retired at 57 and Ruth said it allowed them to spend more time together.

"I was happy to have him," she said.

The couple said they loved each other every day.

Gerald Avery remembered Reimann as extremely hardworking and community oriented.

"We used to call him the mayor of Old Town," Avery said.

"He sat on council but certainly represented the residents of Latham Island very, very well."

Reimann served on city council from 1966 until 1972.

Avery knew him as a store owner but the two became better acquainted through Reimann's first wife. They were later brought together by Avery's wife, Maxine.

"He was a very, very good family friend," Maxine said.

"Distance certainly hasn't hindered that since he retired and moved to (Vancouver Island)."

She recalled spending family picnics with Reimann on Great Slave Lake when she was young.

Though he moved away, Reimann still came back for an annual camping trip.

The last of almost 40 years of those camping trips was in 2012, as Reimann celebrated his 85th birthday.

As a teen in the 1960s, Bill Braden, a photographer and former politician, worked in Gerry's shop.

Over the years, the two stayed in touch.

"We're grateful that we saw him again, just a few months before his passing, when he was cheery, funny and full of stories and memories," Braden wrote in an e-mail to Yellowknifer.

Reimann was fond of travelling with Ruth, saying his favourite destination was Hawaii where he loved the sun, the ocean and the people. After collecting Air Miles, the pair spent about three weeks last fall in Germany visiting friends and family.

"He was happy about that," Ruth said. "He was always positive."

He leaves behind daughters Regine Reimann and Christine Reimann, stepson Dieter Castanow and 10 grandchildren.

A service will be held May 9 at the Comox Valley funeral home at 2 p.m.

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