Grandpa Dean

Grandpa Dean was a Veteran, a builder, a Lion, a husband and a father. Grandpa came to Golden in 1952 as a carpenter working on the courthouse, bringing only Uncle Albert, who was then a young man, with him. Grandma, Mom and Auntie Dennie followed in the summer of '53. Grandpa was a member of the Royal Canadian Legion, a Hospital Board member, and a charter member of the Golden Lion's Club. He was on the Centennial Arena Building Committee. Mom says he was also involved with the swimming pool, which started as a Lion project, but I can't find a Lion to confirm this.

Lady Grey school burned in 1956, around Easter. The story is that Grandpa George, Chairman of School Trustees and Fire Chief was attending this fire, as was Grandpa Dean. They asked each other how they were going to get children back to school?

The next day, Dean was at work in the Civic Centre, making classrooms, and the kids only lost a week of school.

Another of Grandpa's projects was the building committee for the Purcell View Apartments, Golden's first Senior's housing project. Grandpa felt strongly that Golden needed a low cost housing option for seniors who could no longer manage in their homes. Ray Olson, who was a Lion with Grandpa, remembers him saying at a meeting to Gordon Milum, "You're going to need this some day, and so will I". This was a huge project for the Lion's club, but they persevered, bought the land, formed a society with other interested parties, and Golden's first Senior's housing project was developed. Ray believes that without Grandpa's leadership, the Purcell Apartments would not have been built.

Grandpa was Chairman of the Hospital board at the time of his death on May 24, 1971. He had been working very hard to plan and oversee the expansion of our hospital and one of his special projects was the elevator. When the elevator he worked so hard for comes up from the basement at night, seemingly empty, everyone knows it is just Grandpa, checking that everything is running smoothly.