Yukon who is who

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Fearon Lindsay “Frank” Steele (1915 – 2012)
	
Frank Steele was born in Rockglen, Saskatchewan to parents Fearon Endicott “Frank” Steele and Kathleen “Kay” nee Lindsay.  The family farmed in Saskatchewan and they moved to Ladner, British Columbia during the drought years of the 1930s. In 1939, Frank went to Atlin as a cook on Spruce Creek where he married Evelyn May McPherson in October of that year. Two of their sons were born in Atlin.((Fearon Lindsay “Frank” Steele.” //Yukon News// (Whitehorse), 16 November 2012.))

Frank met Clyde Wann in Atlin and helped win a contract to install telephones along the highway. The Steele family moved to Whitehorse to live on the Fish Lake Road and a third son was born. When Frank went into the Army, his family moved back to Ladner and a fourth son was born there. The family returned to the Yukon after the war and two more children, a boy and a girl, were born there.((Fearon Lindsay “Frank” Steele.” //Yukon News// (Whitehorse), 16 November 2012.)) 

The Steele family moved to Swift River where Frank ran one of Clyde Wann’s highway lodges. Swift River was a highway lodge, army maintenance camp, and a CNT repeater station. The Steeles, the Couchs, the Felkers, the Campions, the Talbots, and the Suffesicks all started out at Swift River. Frank’s closest highway lodge neighbour was Bud and Doris Simpson who ran Rancheria Lodge at mile 710. Beaver Creek was run by Helen Wann.((Fearon Lindsay “Frank” Steele.” //Yukon News// (Whitehorse), 16 November 2012.))

In 1954, Frank and the family moved to Whitehorse again and Frank managed two of Wann’s service stations: the Chrysler dealership downtown and Circle Service at the top of Two Mile Hill. Frank preferred a smaller community and in 1955 he leased Jack and Mac’s lodge at the Wye in Watson Lake. It was across from the Watson Lake Hotel operated by Rita and Jim Lund. The older Steele children stayed in Whitehorse to go to school and the younger ones moved to Watson with Frank.(Fearon Lindsay “Frank” Steele.” //Yukon News// (Whitehorse), 16 November 2012.)) 
Frank purchased Summit Lake Lodge in 1957 and ran it for eighteen years. He retired to Sadis, British Columbia in 1976 and his final home was in Chilliwack. Frank was survived by sons Gordon and Richard and daughter Mary-Beth and their children. He was married four times and had stepchildren from those marriages.((Fearon Lindsay “Frank” Steele.” //Yukon News// (Whitehorse), 16 November 2012.))
              
Frank Steele received a posthumous Transportation Hall of Fame Pioneer of the Year Award in 2013.  The life of a lodge owner was not an easy one and their stories are the stories of the early Alaska highway.((Stephanie Waddell, "Territory honours transportation pioneers." //Whitehorse Star// (Whitehorse), 7 June 2013.))