BROWN, Gordon Howard
Gordon Howard Brown, age 87, passed away peacefully at the Menno Home in Abbotsford, BC, Friday morning June 17, 2011, the result of Alzheimer's disease. He is survived by his wife of 64 years, Marjorie (nee Lightbody), his son Murray, his daughter Marlene and her husband Doran.
Born in Langbank, SK, June 2, 1924, the son of William and Mabel Brown, he is predeceased by his elder brother Earl, his younger brother Harvey, as well as his elder sisters Edna, Jean and Beatrice. After their marriage on April 16, 1947, Gordon and Marjorie moved to Vancouver, where they had residences beginning in Point Grey, later to Burnaby, on to Richmond, up to Sechelt, and finally to Abbotsford, BC. It was in their Abbotsford residence where Gordon lived before advancing stages of Alzheimer's disease eventually made his moving into the aforementioned Menno Home a necessity.
As a youngster on the farm, Gordon developed a passion for aviation, making it his vocation by the time he was 18 years old. In 1942 he went to work for Prairie Airways in Moose Jaw, SK, overhauling the then state-of-the-art Cessna airplanes. In 1943 he started with Canadian Pacific Airlines, based in Edmonton, and then onto the Northwest Territories in 1944 until 1948. He then transferred to Vancouver headquarters where he worked as a Flight Engineer on overseas flights to Hong Kong and Tokyo, and to several destinations in Europe and South America. The aircrafts he was responsible for included DC-3's, DC-4's, C-4's, DC-6's, DC-8's, 737's and 747's. He ended his career in 1979 as Supervisor of Technical Support Training. Gordon loved to fish. He and Marjorie (with the help of other helping hands) built a cabin in their backyard in Burnaby and transported it - in prefabricated sections - to Sandy Hook, near Sechelt, where many joyous summer days were spent fishing, and the evenings visiting with friends. Golf and camping with Marjorie made him happy too. Never one for the spotlight, he will be lovingly remembered for the humble, sincere, quiet way that he conducted himself in all aspects of life. The family requests that any and all interested parties make donations for Alzheimer's disease research, or to the charity of choice, in lieu of flowers.