GEORGE ANSLEY ARMSTRONG

With great sadness and regret the family wishes to announce that local business man and legend George Armstrong passed away peacefully al LaVerendrye Hospital on Thursday, June 28, 2001, with his family at his side.
George Ansley Armstrong was born to Sarah and Edward Armstrong on November 27, 1915, on a farm in Herbert, Saskatchewan, the oldest of six children. In 1923 the family moved to Kingsford Township, North
of Emo, where George attended the Donald Young School a small, one-room school in Dance. He completed his formal education at the age of 10, quitting school to help out on his family’s farm. At 13 he got his first job delivering mail from the Post Office in Burriss to a fisherman on Northwest Bay.
In 1930 he worked cutting a right-of-way road in Dance, walking 6 miles to work and back. At 17 he began hauling railway ties and pulpwood with a team of horses north of Devlin. In 1936 George moved to Fort Frances where he met the love of his life, Kay (Kirsti) Broman. Kay and George were married on March 8, 1943.
In the ‘40’s George’s company was busy building roads to allow the lumber and paper companies access to the uncut timber in the area, and in 1948 he purchased his first gravel pit in the west part of Fort Frances, where the office of the George Armstrong Company Limited office is still located today. In 1944 he purchased the 96 acres known as Reef Point and subsequently built the “Reef Point Road”. It is probably safe to say that few men have walked as many miles as George, through swamp, rough terrain, hills and frozen lakes in search of gravel, or the shortest, easiest route through the bush where, one day, cars and trucks would travel. By 1959 the company had attained a reputation in the road construction business that allowed it the opportunity of being one of the prime contractors in the long awaited Highway 11 connection that would link east to west across Rainy Lake, the Noden Causeway . . . the largest prestressed concrete structure in the British Commonwealth.
The highway was officially opened 36 years ago, thanks in part, to George’s friend and company superintendent, Don Christian. The company was also responsible for the building of a part of the Lakehead Expressway in Thunder Bay, rebuilding the highway from Sioux Lookout to Hudson, Highway 599 from Savant Lake north, Highway 502 and a coal terminal along the shores of Lake Superior. In 1982 Fort Frances decided
to overcome a major traffic problem over the CN tracks at Pither’s Point Park by erecting an overpass, and awarded George the contract. His company built the Kenora by-pass and the Boise Cascade treatment lagoon, and operates the ready-mix concrete plant in west Fort Frances. In ???? George’s oldest son Larry took over the management of the company, although not in George’s absence. He continued overseeing as the ‘mobile unit”, driving around with his son-in-law Bill checking on all that was happening.
As a young man George was interested in prospecting and his interest in mining continued as a hobby throughout his life. He loved to watch wrestling; he and Kay enjoyed playing bridge and feeding the ducks and birds at their summer home on Reef Point. He enjoyed the attention of a loving family and welcomed the news of new great grandchildren. In his retirement years he found great pleasure in the friendly bantering with long time friends over coffee at the Rainy Lake Hotel.
He is survived by his five children, Lorraine and husband Bill Elliott and their children Bobby Jon and Natalie, Larry and wife Mitzi and their children Nicole and Shane, Lyle and wife Cheryl and their daughter Faith, Jim and Brenda and his children Trina and James, and Kathi and her husband Jeff and children Jennifer, Jorma and Katie. He is also survived by five great grandchildren; Nicholas, Emma, Elliott, Austin and Callahan; his sisters Doreen, Laura and Eva and brother-in-law Sid Ross.
He was predeceased by his parents, his wife, Kay in 1997, his grand daughter Allison Armstrong, and his brothers Gerald and Vernon. Visitation will be held Saturday, June 30 at 9:00 a.m. at Knox United Church, funeral services following at 10:00 a.m. with Reverend Patrick Playfair officiating.
Pallbearers will be Delbert Ross, Bobby-Jon Elliott, Shane Armstrong, James Armstrong, Jorma Johnson, Faith Armstrong. Honourary pallbearers will be William Fontana, Joe Hodge, Don Christian, Sid Ross, David Brockie, Bruce Murray, Dr. Raymond Randall, Marg Pollard, Rosalyn Patey, and Wanda Johnson.
In memoriam donations may be made to the Canadian Diabetes Association.