Francis Edmund “Bud” Harbottle (1915 - 1990)

Bud Harbottle was born and raised in Whitehorse by parents Francis (Frank) Edmund and Lillian Harbottle, nee Bigger.¹⁾ He had four sisters: Virginia, Gladys, Ardrie, and Doris.²⁾ As a young man, Harbottle was a horse wrangler for Whitehorse outfitter Charlie Baxter at Bear Creek, a mess boy on the sternwheelers, a bus driver for Whitehorse tourists, and a Cat operator with a territorial road crew. When he was eighteen, he drove truck in Dawson and operated a new GMC ten-wheeler, the first in the territory. In the early 1930s he drove the Overland Stage to Dawson. He worked on the construction of the Carmacks airstrip in 1937.³⁾

Bud Harbottle and Thelma Norberg, from Prince Rupert, were married in 1938 and they had two daughters, Donna and Diane. Bud worked for T.C. Richards and Neil Keobke at the Mount Freegold mill. In 1939, the Harbottles moved to Vancouver and worked on wartime projects before moving to Atlin. During the construction of the Whitehorse airport Bud operated shovels, graders, and snowblowers, and later was a road superintendent in Whitehorse until 1944 when he left for service in the Second World War.⁴⁾

Bud returned to Whitehorse in 1946 to drive a bus on the Alaska Highway. His friend, Norman Hartnell, had been in the Air Force and they pooled their resources to buy a new Republic RC3 Seabee and start their own business. Clyde Wann backed their efforts in return for naming their company the Yukon Airways. Bud continued to work for White Pass to pay the bills and he maintained the aircraft at night. He obtained his private pilot license in 1947 and his commercial license in 1948. Yukon Airways and George Milne’s Whitehorse Flying School merged in 1949 as the Whitehorse Flying Service. They also acquired George Simmons’ Northern Airways and his Fairchild 71 CF-BXH that summer. By 1950 the company had most of the Yukon flying business.⁵⁾

The company was sold to Pacific Western Airlines (PWA) in 1954 after George Milne was killed in an air crash between Ross River and Whitehorse. Bud and Thelma were divorced in 1960, and Bud and Jeanne Connolly were married in 1961. Harbottle stayed with PWA until 1955. He flew his own Cessna for several years for himself, flew for George Dalziel and BC Yukon Air Services at Watson Lake, and for Ron Connolly in Dawson. In 1962, a massive airlift involved in the development of Tungsten prompted the naming of three nearby passes for pilots Harrison, Holoman, and Harbottle. In 1971, Harbottle flew a Cessna 185, Beach Craft H-50 Twin Bonanza and finally a Piper Navajo for General Enterprises in Whitehorse. He retired in 1983. The Harbottles were planning to move to Oregon, but Bud died of cancer in 1990.⁶⁾