Lorne Armstrong
Lorne Armstrong was born in Swan River, Manitoba. In 1968 he came north, following his brother who was working on the Alaska Highway, and his sister who was running a highway lodge in Upper Liard with her partner Don McIntosh. He was offered a job repairing houses in Upper Liard and went to work for Ivan Raketti, a contractor in Watson Lake. After some time he left carpentry to work in maintenance for the British Columbia District 87 school board. In two years he became the maintenance supervisor and lived for the next twenty years in Cassiar, British Columbia at the district headquarters. In 1986, he married Joyce. A new school was built at Cassiar in 1992 and the mine closed in 1993. Lorne’s last job in Cassiar was to oversee the school demolition. The district headquarters was moved to Dease Lake and Lorne and Joyce lived there for ten months before Lorne was pensioned off, just three months after they’d sold their house in Watson Lake. In 1993 they moved back to Watson Lake to live close to family and friends. In 2000, Lorne joined the local Emergency Medical Services. He took training and reached the position of supervisor in a few years, but the position was too stressful. In 2009, he remained the man to call when a furnace needed repairs in the middle of the night. He cares about people and remains interested in everyone and everything.1)