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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - In 1952, business was good at Harold Glick's new radio and television shop in downtown Yellowknife, but something was missing.

He wrote a letter to friends in Edmonton, asking if they would show him around, according to Glick's son, Murray Glick.

Harold Glick attended a Yellowknife reunion in Kelowna, B.C., in August 2005. The former Yellowknife radio store owner died Monday at age 83. - photo courtesy of Susan Mather

"He put a sign on the window of his shop," Murray said. "It said 'Gone to Edmonton to find a wife. Back in two weeks.'"

He married Zelda in June of the same year, and never looked back. Such was the attitude of Glick, son of Yellowknife pioneer Jacob Glick who built the Gold Range Hotel.

"He did things his own way," said Murray, 52. "But I think people who knew him knew who he was. He had a good heart."

Glick died Monday after a bout of pneumonia. He was 83.

A man who loved tinkering with radios, Glick was one of the first Yellowknifers to broadcast on CFYK. He was a trumpet player, and loved swing and jazz music, so he volunteered at the station, hosting a show with little more than a microphone propped up on an orange crate.

"He was never without a radio," Murray said. "He always had a radio on."

It was even the gift he gave Zelda for Valentine's Day when he dated her in Edmonton.

"She was hooked," Murray said.

His passion for broadcasting carried over to his business, Yellowknife Radio Inc., where the natural salesman would have a new television or radio setup in your living room before you knew it, his son said. And it didn't matter if you didn't have the cash right away.

"He saw the best in everyone. He was always eager to help them out," Murray said. "Very few people took advantage of him. He was a good judge of character."

As the business grew alongside the Glick family holdings - including Hidden Lake Ragged Ass Gold Mines - his generosity grew too.

"Every time I go up to Yellowknife, I still have people coming up to me saying he gave them their first opportunity at a job."

He would sell someone a house on a handshake, Murray added.

"A lot of people got a start on life in the North with his help."

And though he had an entrepreneurial father, Glick himself didn't have an easy start.

After serving in the Canadian Armed Forces in Kingston, Ont., during the Second World War, Glick followed his father to Yellowknife in 1945.

Jacob Glick ran the Veteran's Hotel and Cafe, which later burned down and was replaced by the Gold Range.

The younger Glick's interest in radios grew and he went to a Montreal radio college to become a radio technician.

He returned and Jacob helped his son set up a tent-frame shop beside the hotel on 50 Street.

All he had to start was $200, Murray said.

Zelda and Harold had four children, and they all grew up in the store.

"He thought that was the real world," Murray said. When Murray wanted to go to business school, Harold balked.

"His reaction was, 'What do you mean, you're going to school? What can't I teach you on the floor?'"

After nearly four decades in business, Harold and Zelda retired near Kelowna, B.C., but his heart stayed in Yellowknife - it was everything to him, Murray said.

"It was real people. It was opportunity - no airs," he said. "The people you met were the people they were. It was just good times - and sometimes hard times."

It's also a place marked by the Glick history - with Glick Court, off Dagenais Drive, named after the family.

Catherine Pellerin, chair of Yellowknife's heritage committee, said it's always sad when people with such rich histories die.

"Every time one of them passes it's a real loss to the community because we're losing that immediate history."

Glick is survived by his wife Zelda, four children, Murray, Jefferey, Leah and Marilyn and their families. A graveside service was held in Kelowna on Tuesday.