Rolf Blakstad Hougen (1929 – 2024)
Rolf Hougen was born near Burns Lake, British Columbia to his Norwegian parents Berent and Margrethe Hougen.1) They had immigrated to Canada in 1914.2) Rolf grew up on the family farm. Berent spent some time in the Yukon in the early 1900s and returned with his wife and youngest son, Rolf, to take over his brother’s Raleigh business in Whitehorse.9 3) Rolf worked after school in the small family store.4)
In 1944, Rolf was an avid photographer and sold his photographs in town.9 5) In 1946, the store moved from Wood St. and Second Ave. to the White Pass Hotel building at Main and Front St. Rolf became the store manager at age nineteen. By 1949, the store was in a larger building across from the old ballpark. The building was partially destroyed by a fire in 1952 and Hougen bought the bowling alley next door and expanded the business to a 75,000 square foot department store.6) He eventually bought out the Northern Commercial Co. store, the Ford dealership and Finning, Northern Commercial’s caterpillar business, and became Yukon’s largest retailer after Taylor and Drury closed down.7)
Rolf and Margaret Van Dyke married in 1955 and they raised six children.8) A volunteer committee, formed around 1955, started the Yukon Sourdough Rendezvous. The committee came together under the leadership of Rolf Hougen, the first chair.9)
In 1958, Hougen established the Northern Television Company Ltd. and started WHTV. In the beginning he taped shows from other television stations and rebroadcast them in the Yukon. Satellites changed the broadcasting landscape in 1960 and Hougen proposed to broadcasters that cable companies could receive satellite signals, package them, and sell them at a monthly rate to customers in remote communities. He formed an alliance of small cable carriers in Hamilton, Quebec, Edmonton, and British Columbia to form CanCom and received a license to broadcast.10)
WHTV started telecasting Cable TV to Whitehorse around 1958, well before it appeared in bigger centres to the south. There was one channel that showed old movies, announcer-run bingo games, and a daily newscast. The station manager, and one-man show, was Bert Wybrew, who was also the Whitehorse Inn manager and who later became a mayor of Whitehorse.11) In 1969, Hougen founded the Yukon’s first commercial radio station, CKRW (The Rush). In 1987, for his contributions to Canadian communications and nation building, Rolf Hougen was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada.12)
Rolf Hougen bought the Hougen Centre building on Main Street in 1969.13) At one time, The Hougen Group of Companies was one of the Yukon’s largest employers.14) In 2004, The Hougen Group included WHTV, CKRW Radio, Whitehorse Motors, and Yukon Honda.15)
In 1979, the Yukon Government appointed Hougen to negotiate the purchase of the White Pass & Yukon Route railway. It continued to operate with federal government support until 1982. Hougen then headed a group of businessmen to buy and transform the railway into a tourist attraction. Their proposal was not accepted, and an eastern company bought the railway which reopened in 1987.16)
The Yukon Foundation was organized in 1973 and grew to accept and manage charitable funds from individuals or organizations for the benefit of Yukoners. In 1980, Hougen brought new energy to the group when he asked prominent individuals inside and out of the Yukon to each donate $1000. Those individuals became the founding members and first Board of Directors and Hougen acted as the Chair. The funds promote educational advancement and scientific or medical research. In 1983, the Yukon Foundation was able to distribute $6600 to three projects and three years later they were able to award their first scholarship. The Yukon Foundation Act passed into law in 1995 establishing the Foundation as a separate legal entity. It created a 20-member board. In 1995, the Foundation had 35 funds and $600,000 under administration. In 2010, it was administrating more than $6 million in 140 dedicated funds.17)
In 1946, Rolf Hougen was a founding member of the Whitehorse Board of Trade (now Whitehorse Chamber of Commerce).18) He was the chair of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in 1989-1990. In 1976/77, the Hougens lived in France.19) Rolf was honorary consul for France from 1980 to 1999, when he was succeeded by his son Erik. Rolf Hougen was appointed an Officer Ordre Nationale du Merite in France in 1992. He was chancellor of Yukon College from 2009 to 2013. He was a director of many organizations and a member of many more. In 2004, Up Here Magazine recognized him as one of the 20 Great Northerners in their 20th anniversary edition.20)
In 2015, Hougen was inducted into the Transportation Hall of Fame for his role in transforming the White Pass & Yukon Route railway into a summer tourist attraction.21) He has donated a significant collection of photographs of Whitehorse in the 1940s, ‘50s, and ‘60s to the Yukon Archives.22) Rolf Hougen was one of ten inductees into the Order of Yukon on New Year’s Day in 2020.23)