Harry Gairns, a former president and manager of Industrial Forestry Service Limited, was born in the northwest village of Atlin in 1932. His grandfather came to Atlin from Scotland near the end of the Klondike Gold Rush of 1898. At one time, there were 10,000 people in the area; now there are less than 500 full time residents.
Harry’s father was born in Atlin and worked as a miner. In 1942, the family moved to Vancouver for better education opportunities for Harry and his brother Dave.
The move to a big city after living in near isolation was quite a shock for young Harry. He remembers getting all the childhood diseases that first winter in Vancouver. The weather in Atlin was cold and dry and it seemed like it rained every day in Vancouver.
Harry graduated from high school in 1950 and enrolled at UBC that fall. After a compulsory year of arts and ccience, he chose forest engineering and graduated in 1955. He studied hard and was able to win several scholarship awards during those five years at UBC including the Canadian Institute of Forestry gold medal for the best overall record in forestry and forest engineering in his final year.
He married Margaret Joughin and the newlyweds moved to Prince George in 1955 where he started his nearly 40-year career with IFS. He was the vice president in 1959 and moved up to the position of president in 1969.
Harry can recount stories associated with the development of the forest industry - as far back as horse logging, towing logs in northern lakes, winter logging roads and ice-bridges, as well as life in logging camps and the evolution of forestry policies. A report by IFS, commissioned by the Prince George Industrial Development Commission in 1959, contributed to the establishment of the first pulp mill in Prince George in the mid 60s. Under his direction, IFS pioneered many improvements in forestry practices, including early use of computers, photogrammetric mapping and the establishment of the Ness Lake Forest Nursery now producing some 20 million trees for reforestation each year.
In 2001, Harry was appointed the board chair of the newly-created Northern Health Authority, the largest geographical healthcare region in the province.
Harry and Margaret had three children: Dr. Anne Poussette, Doug and Stuart, all still living in Prince George, who in turn gave them eight grandchildren.
Margaret was a school teacher before she married and when all the children started school she worked as a substitute teacher. Sadly, and after 56 years of marriage, Margaret passed away in 2011.
In 2015, Harry married Barb (nee Longmore) Wilchek.
Barb Longmore was born in Vancouver in 1938. She said, “I was an only child and I hated my last name. We moved around a lot in the Vancouver area and I had to make new friends at several schools. The kids at school teased me and called me ‘Barb the lawnmower.' I used to get so upset and when my mother re-married to Jack Whitlock I was more than happy to have a name change. He worked for Mott Electric and was transferred to Prince George to manage their branch here. The move to Prince George also allowed me to attend the same school for four years and make lifelong friends.
“I met and married Fred Wilchek in 1959 when he was working as a repairman at Mott Electric. I worked at the Bank of Montreal as a bank teller and later Fred was hired by BC Tel as an engineering technician.
“I was a member of the Hospital Auxiliary for 35 years and an active member of St. Giles Presbyterian church since 1982.
“We had three children; Glen, Karen and Susan who in turn gave us four grandchildren and one great granddaughter.
“Fred retired after 35 years of service with BC Tel and we were enjoying our retirement when sadly he passed away in 2011 at the age of 79 and after 52 years of a good marriage.
“Years went by and I was doing OK. I needed my lawnmower repaired (ha ha!) and a member of my church suggested that another church member - Harry Gairns - would be able to help me with the repair so I contacted him.
“We became friends, he shared produce from his garden and he took me out dancing. Dancing is now our passion and it keeps us healthy and involved.
“We got engaged on a Caribbean cruise, got married at St. Giles Church in March of 2015 and now live happily ever after!”
