Yukon who is who

Art Fry (1912 – 1994)

Art Fry was born in Canora, Saskatchewan. His family moved to Vancouver when he was a boy. He left school at age thirteen on the death of his father and worked as a flower seller, messenger boy, factory worker, and farm labourer to support his family.¹⁾ Fry was a professional boxer by the age of sixteen. He boxed for two years as a pro before he moved to Dawson City in 1929.²⁾ He started working on the Yukon Consolidated Gold Corp dredges in 1930 and continued working there until 1962, when the company was starting to shut down the dredges.³⁾

In 1931, Fry was the Yukon/Alaska champion in several weight classes until he retired from boxing in 1941.⁴⁾ Art and Margaret (Margie) Boutillier were married in 1934 and they raised five children. In 1952, the Fry family took up independent mining incorporated under the name King Solomon ‘s Mine Ltd.⁵⁾

Art Fry developed boxing through the territory. He founded a boxing club in Dawson, formed the Yukon Amateur Boxing Association, and coached many athletes at both recreational and competitive levels. He was awarded the 1977 Coach of the Year Award from the Yukon Sports Federation (now Sport Yukon), received the 1980 Canadian Government Lifestyle Award, and in 1980 was inducted into the Yukon Sports Hall of Fame for his achievements as an athlete, coach and builder of boxing in Yukon.⁶⁾

Fry was a member and one time District Deputy Sovereign Grand Master of the Independent Order of Oddfellows; president of the Dawson Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) club; executive member of Mine Mill and Smelter Workers Union; chairman of the Dawson Consumers Cooperative Association, 1944-1952; president of the Tagish Charlie Society, and a lifelong member of the Yukon Order of Pioneers, NDP and the Yukon Native Brotherhood. He was given a “lifestyle award” by the federal government in 1980.⁷⁾ Fry was still operating his cat on his Bonanza Creek claim the year before he died at age eighty-one.⁸⁾