Charles Drury Taylor (1912 – 1992)
Charlie Taylor was born in Whitehorse to parents Isaac and Sarah Taylor. He attended the Lambert Street School until grade eight and then went to a school in British Columbia between 1926 and 1932. In the summer, he returned to the Yukon and worked on the Taylor and Drury supply boat Thistle. He spent a year at the Vancouver Technical College and then turned down a scholarship at Portland College.1)
Charlie Taylor was at the Taylor and Drury (T&D) store at Champagne a couple of times, but he didn't stay as long as Laurent Cyr. T&D didn't buy too much fur, George Chambers got just about all that trade. Then Charlie went to Mayo and that is where he stayed.2) Charlie Taylor went to Mayo in 1932 to take over the T&D store from his older brother Bill. He met Betty Maclennan there and they married in 1936. In 1942, the Whitehorse operation experienced a boom with the first wave of American troops arriving to build a highway, and Charlie moved back to Whitehorse.3)
Charlie was the president of the Kiwanis and vice-president of the Whitehorse Chamber of Commerce, and he was active in the Yukon Conservation Society. Taylor was a territorial councillor from 1958 to 1961 and was one of the three people responsible for the selection of Yukon electoral boundaries. He was a founder of the territorial Library system. The Taylors were instrumental in the development of tennis and cross-country skiing in the Yukon.4)
The Anglican Church was the core of Charlie’s life and over the years he filled every parish role and provided honorary services to succeeding Yukon bishops as diocesan treasurer.5)
Charlie and Betty Taylor received the Commissioner's Award in 1984 and in 1986 they were named Mr. and Mrs. Yukon. Charlie Taylor was named to the Order of Canada in 1990.