Phil Todd (1924 – 2008)
Phil Todd was born in Ashington, England and the family immigrated in 1928 to a homestead in Alberta. Phil enlisted in the Army at age nineteen and served World War II in England and Italy. In December 1944, he was wounded by shrapnel in an explosion.1)
In 1946, he took heavy-duty mechanic’s training in Red Deer and was posted as an equipment operator on the North West Highway System. His work brought him to Whitehorse and Haines Junction in October and he drove and maintained equipment on the Alaska Highway and the Haines Road. In 1955, he and his first wife, Lil, opened the first truck stop in the Yukon – McCrae Hiway Services.2)
Phil and Lil sold McCrae in 1978; Lil moved south, and Phil moved to the Carcross Corner. At McCrae, Phil formed a trucking company, Aksala Enterprises, and hauled freight in and out of the Yukon; ore from Anvil Mine and rock fibre from Clinton Creek. When the trucking business declined, Phil went full time into operating the Golden Horn Salvage and Repair, a scrap yard at the Carcross Corner, and later added an organized recycling business about a quarter mile away. In thirty years, he shipped out thousands of tons of processed metals and also dismantled industrial buildings and did some mining.3)
Phil married Jasna in 1992 and they raised two boys, Philip and Ondrej. Phil was a founding member of the Golden Horn Volunteer Fire Department. He drove and maintained the fire truck and served as Fire Chief. He was a member of the Yukon Order of Pioneers. He loved the back country and explored on his snow machine and ATV until his mid-seventies. He did not like paperwork and disliked all governments and that often landed him in trouble. He was a quiet, gentle, kind man, independent and tough. He never lost his dry wit. He died at the hospital, but in his coveralls.4)