This is an old revision of the document!
Robert Erlam (1917 – 2009)
Bob Erlam's mother was a an artist and he learned to draw from her at an early age. At age 19, he enrolled in the Calgary Institute of Technology and Art and took classes in drawing from well-known artists Alfred Crocker Leighton and Henry George Glyde among others. He enlisted for service in the Second World War and spent five years in the army as a motorcycle dispatch rider. He drew sweetheart drawings and pin-up girls for his comrades and drew cartoons for Airgraphs, a process where letters are photographed and negatives sent to Canada where they were reprinted for delivery. Bob and Rusty were married in 1947 (sic).1) After Erlam pinned a cartoon of a dispute between a local resident and the electric company to the door of the Whitehorse Star newspaper office, owner and publisher Harry Boyle asked Erlam to work at the paper. In 1963, Erlam got a note from Boyle saying he was now in charge as Boyle was going back to law school. Boyle went on to become a judge, and Bob took over as publisher of the newspaper and then bought the Star with Rusty in 1967. He convinced her to leave her government job in travel and publicity to write for the paper under then editor Flo Whyard. Their son Paul had been running the press for a few years already.2) The Erlams owned the Whitehorse Star for thirty-five years. The paper moved from letter-press printing to offset printing with Paul in the midst of the switch. Jackie Pierce was hired in 1972 as advertising manager in a one-man department. In 1979, Pierce was offered a twenty-five percent share in the company and in 1982 she took over as managing editor when Bob and Rusty moved south. In the mid-1980s, the newspaper made a major change with the purchase of $200,000 worth of computer equipment. Jackie Pierce bought the paper in 2002, but Erlam continued to call. Bob Erlam is remembered for his boundless energy, endless curiosity, long stories, and good advice.3)