|
Be Peete oe no Tee

sper estat ce

After 39 years with the B.C. Ministry of Forests, most of it
spent In the Northwest, Kalum District manager Gerry Dodd
put In his last day on the job Jan. 31. A custom T-shirt was
one of many commemorative Items the legendary Dodd re-
ceived at a celebration Saturday.

a

“Terrace Review —_ Wednesday, February 7, 1990 A3 .

After 39 years “The
Forest Service” retires”

As a private affair, it may

have been one of the main events |

of the year. One hundred and
eighty-eight of 192 invited guests
showed up at the Inn of the West
last Saturday night to honor the
career of retiring Kalum Forest
District manager Gerry Dodd. It
was a night of speeches, gifts
and merriment that spoke highly

of a 39-year career that had, at .

one point or another, touched
everyone in the room. By some,
Dodd was referred to as ‘‘the
Forest Service” and ‘‘a legend in
his own time’’, but another pre-
dicted quite accurately, this was
a night that “the antics of this

‘man will come back to haunt

him’,

by Tod Strachan

From the early years, most
remember a man wearing thick
woolen pants and a heavy shirt
adorned with Gibbs fishing

lures... but never a fish. One:

friend told of the time that Dodd

‘upset both a jeep and its owner

when. he tried to drive up the

steps of the Kitwanga cominuni- .

ty. hall. Another recalled the
time a 15-year-old Gerry Dodd
tried to impress his 13-year-old
sister by parachuting with an
umbrella.

There were others, though,
like past Stewart mayor Gary
Hubbard, who echoed the sen-

- oat

timents of everyone in the room
when he said that-in 1983 when
Stewart was looking for direc-
tion it came from Gerry Dodd.
“Timber moving through the
area went from a trickle to a

million cubic meters a year,’’.
said Hubbard: And in ‘edlity,.

this “‘direction’’- from Dodd,
based on a wealth of experience
and knowledge and offered to-so
many, was the common 1 thread
in the room.

. Dodd.was born in Usk, raised

in Terrace, and with the excep-.

tion of a four-year stint in the
Elka Ranger District in the
Kootenays, spent his. entire
forestry career right here in the
Northwest. In 1951, at the age of
16, Dodd began his forestry
career as a clerk at region head-
quarters in Prince. Rupert.

promoted to Assistant Ranger
and worked in this capacity in
Kitwanga, Telegraph Creek,
Hazelton and Terrace before
returning to Prince Rupert. He
was promoted to the position of
Forest Ranger in October, 1964,
and his first assignment took
him to Lower Post, the largest
district in the province. __.
Two years later, Dodd: was
moved to the Houston Ranger
District as Forest Ranger in

charge. It was during this time.

that an incident occurred near

Houston that would become —

forever a part of the Gerry Dodd
legend.

It seems that a hovering heli-
copter in which he was riding fell
from a height of about 20 feet,
crashed, and burned. Dodd was
uninjured and managed to help
an RCMP officer from .the
wreckage, but that isn’t what his
friends remember the most. His
greatest personal loss in that.ac-
cident was a pair of $25 prescrip-
tion sunglasses, and his demands

‘for reimbursement haunted Vic-

toria for years. His efforts. to
regain his loss were never suc-
cessful but his determination has
not been forgotten.

Dodd was transferred to the
Elka Ranger District in 1969 and
in 1973 returned to Prince

_ Rupert as the Ranger Super-
_In the mid-1950’s, Dodd was .

visor. In the late 1970's, the
B.C. Forest Service was re-
structured as a result of recom-
mendations made by the Pearse
Royal Commission, and in 1979
Dodd applied for and got the
position of District Manager in
the newly-formed Kalum Forest
District. He held this position
until his retirement on Jan. 31,
1990. Retirement activities
haven’t yet been fully planned
but Dodd and his wife, Nat,
plan to remain in Terrace for
many years to come.

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