Prince George developer and commercial property real estate agent Harry Backlin is celebrating his 90th birthday today.
Harry said, "I wanted to take a trip and just go away for my 90th birthday but my friends and family had other ideas for me. They were busy putting together a surprise party for an all-inclusive evening at the Moxies Lounge and since Moxies is a special place for me, I agreed to stay and take in the party."
Harry was born in 1929 in Sandy Lake, Man. He completed high school and went on to university in Winnipeg because his father wanted him to be a doctor. He attended the University of Manitoba medical program for two years and decided a career as a doctor was not for him.
His father suggested that he should study to be a teacher so he attended the Winnipeg College of Teachers. There were 380 students studying to become teachers and in no time at all the popular Harry was elected as the student body president. He earned his diploma and taught Grades 1 to 8 at his hometown rural school for the next three years. He walked to and from school as the teacher.
His father was a business man, a notary public, an auctioneer, a real estate agent and a member of the local school board.
Harry went back to university to be a professor, earned his bachelor of arts degree and went on to law school to become a lawyer.
Harry said, "I moved to Vancouver in the early 60s, went to work for Mutual of Omaha Life Insurance for an old client of mine and worked as a consultant for businesses who were insured by Omaha.
"I met and married Maybelle Klein in 1973. We moved to Prince George in 1975 because Maybelle had family here. We only intended to stay here for two years. I went into contracting, bought five building lots from the city, hired construction workers and built houses. Maybelle and I decided to stay until we sold the houses. Her sister, a model from Vancouver, moved to Prince George to start her own modeling school so that helped us decide to stay here.
"I sold all the houses and decided to go into real estate. I passed the mandatory real estate exam and went to work for Barry Leboe who owned Century 21 Westside Realty (PG) Ltd. at the time. I worked there for 17 years selling commercial real estate.
"Maybelle decided to go into real estate, got her license and worked for Barbara Monk. That was 44 years ago, I am still here and I have no intentions of moving anywhere else.
"Sadly, Maybelle passed away in 2014.
"It wasn't long and I realized that the many businesses I consulted for in Vancouver had no presence here in Prince George and I was determined to change that to make Prince George a better, healthier and a proud city. I went into promoting businesses that I felt should be here in Prince George. I knew that the city was hungry and ready for my ideas.
"I started out by meeting with all the builders that met for coffee at the Camelot Restaurant on a regular basis and in fact they still meet there after all these years. I listened to their ideas, questions and concerns and then I acted on it."
Harry brought in and helped expand many businesses by land assembly to Prince George, such as the B.C. Buildings Corporation, Canadian Tire, Shell Oil, Imperial Oil, Petro Canada, Texaco Oil Canada, Wendy's Restaurant, Apollo Forest Products, Dunkley Lumber, Cambridge Shopping Centre, Costco, Pacific Western Transportation, Princess Auto, Westbank Projects Corp., Sandman Hotel, Earls Kitchen and Bar, Denny's Resturant, the White Spot Restaurant and one of his favorites - Moxies Grill and Bar - just to name a few.
Harry said, "The White Spot chain of restaurants was owned by Peter Toigo out of Vancouver. I phoned him and said I had the perfect lot on Victoria Street for one of his restaurants, he flew up, looked it over and said, 'Write it up'. Right after that I brought in Tim Hortons on the lot next door."
When Barry Leboe closed his company, Harry worked for Coldwell Banker in real estate and local facilities for the next 15 years. He is now a commercial realtor for Royal LePage.
I spoke to Rod McLeod, the owner and managing broker for Royal LePage and he said, "It is an honor to have Harry on our team here at Royal LePage. When he joined us, I introduced him to the rest of the team and his introduction speech was incredibly well received. Everyone wanted to know all the books that he read throughout his career because they intended to get copies. He highly recommended a book entitled Think and Grow Rich by author Napoleon Hill. He mentors and provides inspiration and encouragement to our team here at Royal LePage.
"His documentation and his notes are amazing. In fact, he is a legend, he is as solid as a rock and it is hard to believe he is 90 years old. We checked the records and to our knowledge he is the oldest Royal LePage real estate agent in all of Canada."
Harry had one son, Neil (deceased), who was a Gold's Gym body building medalist and an environmental engineer.
Harry earned the Century 21 Centurion Award in 1981 for topping sales in the 5 to 7.5 million-dollar category.
He is an accomplished oil painter and paints beautiful wildlife paintings. He completed 75-80 paintings in his spare time. He has since retired his paint brush and no longer paints.
Over the years, Harry has worked as a fundraiser and donated to many good causes. He is always willing to give back to his community.
He is an active 45-year member and a current board member of the St. George Ukrainian Catholic Church.
Harry said, "The highlight of my career was being a founding member of the University of Northern B.C. I wanted to help people get to university because I know what education can do for a person. I am proud to say that I spoke to many people from the north, the east and the west about the benefits of sending their children to our university and now we are seeing many young doctors (and others) graduating and working in our community. All of this is important to me because I started out wanting to be a doctor.
"I was on the planning department committee for the university and I am so proud of all the work that was done to bring UNBC to our city.
"The second highlight of my career has been my accomplishments working with city hall on projects dated as far back as 1975. I have appeared 192 times before seven different mayors including Harold Moffat, Elmer Mercier, John Backhouse, Colin Kinsley, Dan Rogers, Shari Green and Lyn Hall. My message has always been 'if the city would roll out the carpet to real estate and roll away the red tape the city will succeed due to growth in population and commercial, industrial and business growth to become the true capital of northern B.C.' It looks to me like the current mayor and city council are hearing that message.
"My motto is 'grow older along with me - the best is yet to be. This is the last of life for which the first was made, so get out there and enjoy every single day.'
"I would like to leave you with a prayer that I say at the end of each day as I retire for the evening. It goes like this: 'I pray for a clear conscience and a restful mind so that I can sleep in comfort for being a caring and sharing person.'"
Cheers to 90 years, Harry, and thank you for being one of the many people of Prince George who are the foundation of our community. Happy birthday, my friend.
