There are so many facts and good news stories about Dick Voneugen over his lifetime that are just too numerous to define in this small column. If you do not already know the accomplishments of Dick just Google his name on the internet and settle in for a good deal of very interesting reading.
Before I start my story about another side of Dick I just want to mention that he is the one and only person to be awarded the distinction of the Prince George Citizen of the Year twice. The first time was in 1995 when the event, at that time, was sponsored by the Rotary Club and the second time was in 2007 under the current event sponsorship of the Prince George Community Foundation.
Dick was born in 1932 in Amsterdam, Holland along with a twin sister (now deceased) and a younger brother. His father had chronic respiratory health problems so the doctors ordered him to move out to the country. They moved to Soest and lived in an area behind the Queens Palace.
Dick explains: "I was only 13 years old when the war ended. I was sheltered more or less from the worst except for the hunger. My parents would go on what was called a 'hunger trip' which meant loading up the bicycle and taking household items to the farmers to trade it for food. The Germans occasionally stopped people on their return trip and confiscated not only the food but the bike as well. We also had to be very careful because we were sheltering a Jewish family of four for about a year in some hidden spaces in our house.
After the war we all three had the good fortune to go to a special school that was started by Kees Boeke. The school operated similar to our Montessori schools; we progressed by our own progress and peer discipline was decided by the students collectively. The concept was phenomenal. We had small mentor groups and we called the teachers by their first names. The students were also the janitors. We cleaned the school ourselves on a daily basis. I can claim that I cleaned toilets along side of Princess Beatrix and her two sisters, the daughters of Queen Juliana. Princess Beatrix, in time became Queen Beatrix, and reigned from 1980 to 2013.
It was at this school that I learned a lot including the appreciation of classical music. Needless to say those were wonderful years.
In 1949 my father died and we had to choose a direction. I went on to an electronics school for four years and then on to the compulsory 18 months in the peace time army. I advanced to sergeant and instructed new recruits in electronics. After the army two of my friends and I decided to immigrate to either South Africa, Australia or to Canada; countries that were at that time welcoming immigrants. Neighbors who had immigrated to Canada in 1948 were home for a visit and of course they influenced our decision by saying, 'Come to Canada, and come to us in Port Alberni'. I can not remember who paid for our trip. It was either the Dutch because they were glad to be rid of us or it was Canada who was glad to have us. We each had $50 in our pockets and with that we flew to Montreal, and then took the train to Vancouver, the ferry to the island and finally the bus to Port Alberni where our new family picked us up.
We arrived on a Friday at the end of April, 1956. The next day we went to the marshaling yard in Port Alberni to see if they were hiring workers for the woods. The answer was yes and we were handed cork boots, hard hats and gloves. We were hired as choker men - the lowest paying job in the woods. Up until then I had never worked a physical job in my life and here I was arch logging, gathering trees up to eight feet in diameter which took three chokers to go all the way around the log. I must say that the Canadians were great and did not laugh at us as we learned the job or at our poor English skills. Regardless, we were paid one dollar and fifty two and a half cents per hour. We thought we were going to be millionaires!
Our new family cleaned up an old chicken coup and we installed three bunk beds a wood stove, a table and chairs and it became something we could now call home. We ate all our meals at the farm house.
After some conversation with the site foreman, he suggested that I would be the camp radio man. They were just starting out with 2-way radio communication. He never checked to see if I was truly qualified for the job but radios and where ever there was a wire within ten feet became my new job. The years went by and MacMillan Bloedel eventually contracted out the work and BC Tel took it over. That did not appeal to me so I joined Motorola as a 2-way radio field technician looking after the Department of Highways for all of Vancouver Island and working out of Victoria. I traveled a lot and I tried to pick up extra repair work any place that I spotted a 2-way radio antenna. Soon I was so busy that I often did not make it home to Victoria at night. After a few years I was moved to North Vancouver to become a part of the installation team for the Department of Highways for the entire Province. I traveled the Province and saw it all from Hazelton all the way to Fernie.
Mr. Patterson, the Vice President from West Coast Motorola called me in one day and said he thought I had the qualities for a salesman. He explained that they wanted a technical guy in Prince George to start a branch and that is how I ended up here. That was in 1965 just as the pulp mills were starting up.
It was tough at first as I had no sales experience at all. After awhile I made a trip to the Vancouver office and confessed that I was a bit intimidated by the suit and tie guys at the pulp mills, the cities sawmills and the pulp mills. Mr. Patterson's suggestion was to strip them down to their underwear in your mind and then you would both be on the same level and that seemed to work. I expanded the business to a total of eight locations in the interior of BC and I went from a sales rep to the sales manager. During this time frame I got married but unfortunately after ten years we separated.
Everything was going along nicely until the Japanese radio products hit the market. Our first reaction to this new phenomenon was to call it 'junk'. Well, it wasn't junk and their equipment could do things that we could not offer in our 2-way equipment. To make a long story short, over time we ended up closing the other locations; now it was just me all alone again and back to sales. In 1994 they wanted me to move to Vancouver. I knew right then and there that this was not in the cards for me so after working 30 years with Motorola I retired at the age of 62. Once I was retired I had offers from BC Tel to be a part of their cellular sales group; however as an old 2-way radio guy we all figured cellular would never get off the ground. I also had an offer from a local answering service to look after their paging business but I was very happy with my decision to retire early so I declined both offers. In the end, looking back I have never been a day without work.
I am now 81 years old and friends have asked me if I ever consider moving away from Prince George to a warmer climate. I have great friends here; we can enjoy four wonderful seasons and get to anything we like within 15 minutes of driving. So my answer is a resounding no. Besides all of that where would I ever find another Northern Hardware!"
