| Number 34 | June 1, 2004 |
FORMER CABINET MINISTER DIES
One of Prince Edward Island’s most popular politicians, George
Johnston Ferguson (1.4.4,11A.2.) died in the Montague Hospital on
Monday, April 19. He was just one week short of his 81st birthday.
George was in the meat business with his father, Mert, and during the
1960s entered provincial politics as a Liberal. He was first elected in
a byelection on July 17, 1961, and was re-elected three more times in
1962, 1966 and 1970, and spent a number of years in the cabinet.
“He was probably the best-liked politician of all time,’’ recalled
former Liberal colleague Dr. A.E. (Bud) Ings of Montague in an
interview with The Guardian.
“He was such a gentleman and did his best for the voters and the MLAs
who started out as backbenchers. He was the most understanding person I
think I ever met.”
George was born April 26,
1923, in White Sands, the second child of Mert Ferguson and Minnie
MacPherson. He attended school in White Sands and then went to Prince
of Wales College. The Second World War broke out almost the day classes
started and before Christmas he was offered a job with the Canadian
Bank of Commerce because many employees had left to join the forces. He
spent his first six months in the Alberton branch and then transferred
to Murray River where he worked until he was old enough to enlist.
George joined the navy and served aboard the destroyer, Sioux. It was
based at Scapa Flow, north of Scotland, and served on the Murmansk Run
escorting convoys to northern Russia. While at sea he was injured when
he fell from an upper deck and hurt his back. The problem started to
bother him after the war, and eventually the doctors discovered he had
eight injured vertebrae in his back. He required three years of
hospital care, two in Montreal and one in Charlottetown, in a body
cast. Fortunately the Military provided for his care.
He was finally able to go back to work in 1951 and he decided to go
into the meat business with his father who had opened a meat shop in
Murray River. For the next ten years he spent five days a week on the
road peddling meat throughout southeastern PEI and knew everyone.
When the Liberal Party had trouble finding a candidate to run in a
byelection in the Montague area riding of Fifth Kings in 1961, George
agreed to offer. The party wanted to schedule a series of public
meetings, but George told me in 1997 when I interviewed him for his
biography, that he felt there was a better way. Relying on his
experience in the meat business, he knocked on every door and
campaigned in the kitchens of the voters. His strategy worked and he
became the first Beck descendant elected to the Legislature since Vere
himself. He was appointed to cabinet in 1966 and served as Minister of
Highways and Transportation until 1974, when he was named to the Public
Utilities Commission, which regulates phone, power, gasoline and other
rates in the provinces.
In recent years George was in failing health and required an oxygen
supply and used a motorized wheelchair to get around. He is survived by
his wife, Dorothy (Stewart), and children Dennis (Nancy), St. Andrew’s,
N.B.; George Jr. “Fergie”, John (Mary) and Paul (Sherri), all of Murray
River.
The funeral was held from Ferguson’s Funeral Home Chapel in Montague
with interment in the Murray Harbour cemetery.
The highlights of George’s career are covered in more detail in the 2003 edition of the Vere Beck Family Biographies, pages 103-105. If you don’t have the latest family books, copies are available from James V. Beck or Ivan Munn.
ATLANTIC BUSINESS GROUP MET IN BRUDENELL
The Southern Kings and Queens Chamber of Commerce has probably set some sort of new record by hosting the annual meeting of the Regional group while only two years old. This year's annual meeting of the Atlantic Provinces Chambers of Commerce was held in Brudenell, P.E.I., from May 27-29.
The federal minister in charge of the Atlantic Provinces Opportunities Agency, Joe McGuire, praised the local chamber's drive in accepting the challenge.
He said that in the two years since the formation of the chamber, it has exceeded all expectations.
Debby Beck of Montague (1.4.3A.3.4.3.)is the president of the Southern Kings and Queens chamber.
She said they were thrilled to have the opportunity to host the event, which is the 108th annual meeting.
In an interview with The Guardian, she said, "The economic spin-off to our region is just the beginning of the wonderful opportunities that our local businesses will enjoy."
Dianne Kelderman of Truro, N.S. is the new president of the Atlantic Provinces Chambers of Commerce.
BUSY SUMMER AT THE PLAYHOUSE
The future of the Kings Playhouse in Georgetown, P.E.I., looked a
little uncertain for a time last winter after the town decided to get
out of the theatre business. But all that changed suddenly when Nancy
Beck and Homefree Productions moved in to take over. Homefree has 35
shows scheduled over a six-week period in July and August. 
An actor,director, and playwright, Nancy (1.4.3B.7.2.5) is the founder and artistic director of
Homefree Productions, the Island-based professional theatre company
running the Playhouse this summer.Heading up the season are last year's hit musical revue, Amazing Gracie, and a revival of the company's popular Second World War show, A Nightingale Sang. Other shows include Wingin' It! by Pamela Campbell and Off Her Rocker, a new comedy by Nancy.
The theatre company is very familiar with the Georgetown stage. They ran the facility from 1989 to 1992 so this is a homecoming of sorts.
Nancy says, "The Playhouse is the perfect space for Amazing Gracie. And we've had a lot of requests over the last few years to bring back Wingin' It! and A Nightingale Sang, so we decided to put together a season that mixes a couple of our most popular shows from the past with those of the present."
The season opens on July 10th with Amazing Gracie and closes on August 21st.
THE TRUEMANS IN THAILAND
Education is a family adventure for Cam Trueman, wife Sandy and
their daughters: Emma,11, Wynter,10, and son Madison, 9. The family had
been living in Cranbrook, B.C., for the past 10 years where Cam taught
high school. But they left for Thailand in September 2003, when Cam
joined a company called Magic Eye to teach environmental cleanup on the
river flowing through Bangkok. He works on a barge that cruises the
river carrying groups who are interested in the subject.
Sandy (MacLennan) Trueman (1.7.2,6,6,1,) is home-schooling the children
in their apartment in Bangkok, a city of six million people with
world-class traffic congestion.
After two months there, Sandy described Thailand in an email message to
her parents, Hope and Brian MacLennan, as a land of contrasts. “This
amazing country is both beautiful and ugly, peaceful and infuriating,
noisy and quiet, cheap and expensive, passive and rushed, funny and
sad. If you have never suffered from culture shock, Thailand is a great
place to start.”
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The children are meeting local people, learning new games and
picking up Thai phrases while volunteering at an orphanage and the zoo.
The family plunged into the local culture by exploring the city, trying
Thai food, seeing the sites and getting familiar with the various
transportation methods. In this respect they are living up to Hope
MacLennan’s description of them as, “an adventurous family” jumping at
an opportunity to see the world.
Sandy says they’ve tried most of the local modes of transportation
including the Marriott Hotel’s shuttle boat, the city’s water taxis,
tuk-tuk (three-wheel taxis) and songthaews (vans with two rows of seats
- “uncomfortable and tight but cheaper and safer than tuks”), the
luxurious Skytrain, and air conditioned city buses as well as the
inexpensive open-air bus system.
They’ve also traveled by riverboat to various tourist sites including
the Grand Palace with the adjacent temple that houses the Emerald
Buddha.
Sandy says the Magic Eye Barge Program is a novel way for groups to
discover more about Thailand and the environment around them by taking
an educational cruise of one to six days along the Chao Phraya River or
down a klong (a type of water alley) on the 60-foot converted teak rice
barge. “It’s beautiful to see,” she says. Three main subjects are
covered: environmental awareness, Thai culture and history. It’s
hands-on participation with groups interviewing and observing people at
riverside markets and villages to find out how their lives are affected
by the river.
Madison was the first member of the family to join his father on one of
the cruises, and Sandy said he talked about it for days. Emma and
Wynter will take their turns too.
HOSPITAL SUPPORT OUTSTANDING
The annual fund raising drive for the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in
Charlottetown set a new record this year. Pledges totalling more than
$370,000 rolled in during a 21-hour telethon on the Island Cable TV
station in late April. That topped last year's effort by more than
$100,000.
Stan MacPherson, chair of the QEH Foundation, said he was stunned after
the final tally was announced. "The economy is not great out there and
there's a lot of competing interests for scarce money … I'm almost
speechless, way over my expectations.''
Many well-known Island performers pitched in to help including Cynthia
MacLeod, Richard Wood, Blue Streak, Fiddler's Sons and Janet McGarry.
Garnett Buell of Murray
River (1.6B.6.5,2.) once again threw his support behind the hospital
campaign. He organized a series of concerts in Murray River that raised
almost $25,000 for the hospital. Many local musicians and entertainers
joined him in the effort that concluded on the Saturday night before
the telethon. Garnett started the concerts four years ago to show his
appreciation for the care provided at the hospital.
The first year they raised $7,100.00, the second year $14,000.00, last
year $19,500.00 and this year more than $24,000.
The funds from the telethon will be used to buy badly needed equipment
to keep up with advances in technology.
DEATHS
BECK: Gordon Lemuel Beck (1.7.3.1B.6) died suddenly at his home on Machon's Point in Murray Harbour on May 7, 2004. He was 79, and a son of the late Ezra and Mabel (Dean) Beck. He is survived by brothers Carrette, and Oakland and predeceased by his brother, Horace, a half-sister Lulu Mae, and half-brothers Waldo and Ernest. Gordon never married and lived all his life on the family homestead on Machon's Point, with an excellent view down the harbour to Beach Point and beyond.
As soon as he was old enough he joined the navy in the Second World War. However, he soon received a medical discharge because of a hernia. After that he was called up by the Army and was just completing his basic training at Camp Petawawa, Ontario, when the war ended.
Gordon then started fishing, working alone and hauling his traps by hand. He gave up fishing in 1986, and told me when I interviewed him for his biography, that he, "never missed it." (Page 118 in the 2003 edition of the Vere Beck Family Biographies) He kept active with his garden and with beachcombing and other interests.
His funeral service was held on May 9 in the chapel of the Kings and Queens Funeral Home in Murray River, with interment in the Murray Harbour Cemetery.
GLOVER: Windsor
Malcolm Glover (1.7.2,4,9,) of White Sands died at the Riverview Manor in Montague
on May 3, 2004, at the age of 80.
He was a veteran of the Second World
War.
He was married to Alice (Chapman) and the father of Joanne
Chapman, and the grandfather of Mitchell.
The funeral service was held
from Ferguson's Funeral Home Chapel in Montague on Friday, May 7th.
He
was buried in the Murray Harbour Cemetery.
PENNY: Rosie May (Moore) Penny of Murray Harbour died in the Montague Hospital on May 22nd, 2004, at the age of 95.
She was the widow of William Cyrus Penny, (1.4.1,3.4.). She is survived by two daughters, Arvilla Dunn, and Enid Clements, and a son, Roland, all of Murray Harbour.
She is also survived by ten grandchildren, ten great grandchildren, and one great, great grandchild.
The funeral service was held at the Church of Christ, Murray Harbour, with interment in the Murray Harbour Cemetery.
SPRINGTIME IN PARIS
By Peter Murdoch and Janice MacPherson Murdoch
(1.6A.4,6.1,1.1) The City of Light beckoned, so we made our way to Paris for Easter. We had heard, and read, much about it, but nothing really prepared us for the hustle and bustle of one of the largest cities in Europe. So much to see and do - monuments, museums, cafés - we weren't sure where to start our whirlwind adventure!
Even though it was unseasonably cool and windy, there was enough sunshine to tempt us to ride an open-air bus for a two-hour tour of the major attractions. We saw The Louvre, Notre-Dame Cathedral on the Ile de la Cité (the island in the heart of Paris), the Arc de Triomphe, the Champs-Elysées, Place de la Concorde, and of course the Eiffel Tower. 
Probably the most famous Paris landmark, the Tower stands over 1,000 feet high and weighs 7,000 tons. From the second observation deck, we had a magnificent view of the city in every direction, watching the Seine River winding its way between the Left and Right Banks.
Another impressive attraction is The Louvre, the world's largest palace and museum, and home to over 30,000 works of art and artifacts. In addition to visiting the famous exhibits - the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, and Winged Victory - we toured Napoleon's Apartments with their opulent furnishings, and admired the Crown Jewels of France.
The Arc de Triomphe, at one end of the Champs-Elysées, is an awe-inspiring monument that was commissioned by Napoleon to commemorate the victories of his armies. It is also the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, with an eternal flame burning brightly.
Our favourite sight was the Eiffel Tower lit up at night. The City of Light certainly lives up to its name, and is definitely worth another visit!
STUDENTS STAGE CONCERT
A special concert was held at the Montague Regional High School on
April 29th to raise money for the school's music program. The theme
dealt with the Past, Present, and Future of the program.
Christie Beck (1.4.3B. 7.2.2.2,) has been the music director for the past ten years and
the concert served the dual purpose of marking that achievement as well
as raising money for the school program. Former students were invited
to drop in and take part.
A photo in The Eastern Graphic served to illustrate the theme of the
concert. It included four members of the Beck family - Christie
representing past students, her sister Amy, a student presently in the
program, and Christie's daughters, Leah and Katie Jordan -future
students.
LEADERS IN MERCHANDISING
Stewart and Beck Ltd. in Montague
has won recognition as one of the best stores in the Home Hardware chain. The store placed among the 50
top outlets in a recent nation-wide evaluation carried out by the
company. Customer service, store cleanliness, and merchandising are
items considered in deciding the rankings. George and Mark Beck manage
the Montague store.
Home Hardware is one of the largest wholly-owned Canadian retail chains in
the country. It has more than 1,000 independently owned and operated
locations from coast to coast.
The Vere Beck Family Home Page
The
Marfleet Home Page
Editor: Ivan Munn imunn@accesswave.ca
Family Genealogist: James V. Beck jamesverebeck@comcast.net