George Kentner Gooderham
By Amélie Crosson-Gooderham
Friday, April 9, 2004 - Globe and Mail
Family man, friend, educator. Born March 5, 1927, in Calgary. Died Oct. 10,
2003, in Ottawa, of bacterial endocarditis, aged 76.
When it was cocktail hour at the cottage, adults converged on the deck and
kids disappeared to watch videos. The arrival of the VCR was mildly disputed
by Kent, who preferred sunsets and stars. He would step over his sprawling
grandchildren on his way to freshen up his drink and check out the video. The
perennial favourite was the teen cult classic, Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
"
Not that subversive Ferris Bueller again!" Kent would groan. But then
he would laugh. Maybe it was the scene when Ferris fools his parents that
he's sick (Kent was the father of five). Maybe it was when Ferris outfoxes
the principal
to skip school (Kent was a school principal). Maybe it was the scene at the
Art Institute of Chicago (Kent was an avid art collector). Or maybe it was
when Ferris dances to Twist and Shout (Kent gave the counterculture of the
Sixties his full embrace, had shoulder-length hair, and was a great dancer).
In the end, I think Kent laughed because he recognized himself in the character
of Ferris Bueller who shows friends -- and authority -- that learning and
living are one and the same.
"
Marvellous and glorious" were Kent's favourite adjectives and his life
was indeed a quest for the marvels and the glories of this world. He was born
in Calgary and raised on the Blackfoot Reserve where his father, in the western
Gooderham family tradition, was the Indian Agent. At 14, Kent was sent to be "civilized" at
Ravenscourt Boys' School in Winnipeg, where one of the most "civilizing" influences
was Sunday high tea with old family friends, the Creasor Crawfords. It was
there that he caught the eye of young Helen Rea, who at the age of 13 recognized
good husband material. After a 13-year separation and a whirlwind courtship
of just three months, they would marry on Dec. 29, 1955. Their life together
began in northern Alberta where Kent was a school superintendent. He later
joined the Government of Canada's department of Indian and Northern Affairs
and moved to Ottawa and became Director of Indian Education. He worked to
close residential schools and increase opportunities to higher education.
He also
edited two books, I Am an Indian and This is an Indian Reserve.
In 1969, Kent decided to complete a master's degree in anthropology at the
University of Toronto. The whole family (now including five children aged
3 to 12) moved into a two-bedroom apartment at Rochdale College, the experimental
university residence that would become central to Canada's Sixties counterculture.
Retired at 51, Kent was also a businessman, poet, patron of the arts, and
gifted gardener. He gathered seeds from spectacular species and cultivated
a special
Eden on Sand Lake in Elgin, Ont. He was a people-magnet who never judged.
He wanted to experience us. We saved stories to tell him -- movies we'd seen,
concerts we'd heard, people we'd met, books we'd read. He would listen and
encourage. He inspired us, made us feel "marvellous."
Once Helen retired, they began to "winter" in Vancouver, where
for more than 13 wonderful years, Kent turned the 25-foot-high walls of their
English
Bay loft into a much-loved gallery of Canadian art.
His illness was sudden and baffling and in three weeks, which seemed like
months, he lost his fight to a massive infection, dying on a night of the
full moon.
At the end of Ferris Bueller's Day Off, young Ferris looks at the camera
and says, "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once
in a while, you could miss it." Kent didn't miss a moment. And we will
certainly miss him - and his rich, deep laugh -- especially on the deck at
cocktail hour, when the sun begins to set in all its glorious, marvellous
beauty.
Amélie is Kent's daughter-in-law.