LEN BUDGELL

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LEN BUDGELL Peacefully on December 21, 2000, at the St. Boniface General Hospital, our Dad and Grampa died at the age of 83 years. Born August 7, 1917, at North West River, Labrador, to Gordon and Phyllis Budgell (Painter), Dad spent his early childhood years on Fogo Island, Newfoundland, returning to the Hudson Bay Company posts at Rigolet and North West River, where his father was the last Company Factor. He proudly followed in his fathers footsteps and joined the Company as a teenager. Dad had worked for 53 years with the Hudsons Bay Company when he retired in 1984. He started off in the fur trade in Labrador and set a speed record as a teenager for the dog sled run from Nain to Hebron. He was on board the Companys supply ship Nascopie when she was crushed in the Arctic ice in the late 1940s and went to the bottom with all his belongings. As a young fur trader and store clerk, he served at Rankin Inlet and several other posts in the high Arctic. Dad was a pioneer in the use of radio in the isolated regions of the Canadian North and when he joined the Canadian Army during the Second World War, he was assigned to training radio and communications personnel at the Kingston base. After the war he returned to Cartwright where he met Muriel Watson, a Saskatchewan nurse who was serving with the Grenfell Mission Hospital. They married in 1947, on May 2, the grant date for the Companys founding charter in 1670. Shortly after, Dad and Mum moved to mainland Canada with Dad serving as a trader and store manager throughout the Canadian North and Arctic at posts as varied as Lac La Ronge and Ile a la Crosse in Saskatchewan, Berens River and Churchill in Manitoba, Pikangikum and Sandy Lake in Ontario, and Tuktoyaktuk and Fort Resolution in the Northwest Territories. By the mid 50s they had two school age children (Pat and Maureen) and moved their family to Winnipeg to avoid sending the children off to boarding school. Two more girls (Kathy and Shelagh) were born in Winnipeg. With the move to Winnipeg, Dad began working for the Northern Transportation Division of the Company from the former Hudsons Bay House (now the North-West Company offices). This position involved moving the Companys goods to posts throughout northern Canada and required seasonal on-site postings to Tuktoyaktuk and Churchill and Moosonee. The family was fortunate to join him during the summers at Moosonee, where three tugs and many barges supplied posts and stores up the Ontario and Quebec coasts. After his retirement Dad was a member of an HBC retirees group that met weekly for lunch. He was fond of the many fine hours he spent reminiscing with the "boys" and sharing complaints about the soup. After Moms death in 1999, he was fortunate to find a home away from home at the Southdale Village Family Restaurant where he found a warm welcome. He was a raconteur and author of Company history and tales of his life in Newfoundland and Labrador and across the Canadian north. He was a seafarer, a fur trader, a store manager, a transportation company manager and a devoted Company "servant" throughout his years. Len Budgell was a devoted husband, father and Grandpa. He is survived by his son Patrick (Kathy) of Edmonton; daughter Maureen Budgell of Stonewall, daughter Kathy Anstett (Andy) of Mississauga and daughter Shelagh Budgell of Winnipeg. He will be greatly missed by his grandchildren, Megan and Tracy Budgell, Stephen and Liam Syrett, and Joshua, Kaleigh, Keira and Kaitlin Anstett. He is also survived by his brothers, Dick (North West River, Labrador) and Hal (Halifax) and his sister Winifred (St. John, N.B.). A memorial service will be held at 2:00 p.m. on January 2, 2001, at Windsor Park United Church, 1062 Autumnwood Rd., St. Boniface. The family wishes to thank the doctors and nursing staff on 4B at the St. Boniface Hospital for their caring and compassion, and in particular, Joanne at the Day Hospital for being Dads friend. Flowers are gratefully declined. Donations in Dads memory may be made to the Childrens Wish Foundation, 350 St. Mary Ave., or to an Innu charity of choice. The Desjardins Funeral Chapel in care of arrangements, 233-4949; toll free 1-888-233-4949.

As published in Winnipeg Free Press on Dec 27, 2000