Hugo Riske was born in Borodino, Romania in 1934 and raised in northern Germany.
He originally came to Canada to visit his sister in Kitimat where he easily found work in the construction industry.
He left Kitimat in 1958 because aluminum prices had taken a dive and jobs were now scarce. He was 23 years old when he and three other men packed all their belongings into a 1949 Meteor two-door sedan with hardly any floor boards left in it and decided to head to Edmonton to look for work.
Hugo said, "The memory of that trip will be in my mind forever; we had more gravel and dust inside of that car than there was outside of the car. We stopped in Prince George to rest and I have been here ever since.
"There was one traffic light in Prince George when I arrived from Kitimat and that was really something back then. The surface of Central Street was gravel and a cloud of dust hung over Prince George because of all the gravel roads."
It wasn't long until Hugo met Ursula Kusterer, the love of his life.
Ursula was born in Pzorzheim, Germany in 1941; her parents had made arrangements for her to come to Canada to visit her homesick sister. She only intended to stay here for one year and then return to her family in Germany but destiny had other plans for Ursula.
Ursula arrived in Canada in March of 1960, Three days later her sister introduced her to Hugo Riske and of course it was love at first sight. They were married seven months later and will soon celebrate 56 years of marriage.
Ursula worked at the German Deli on George Street for 15 years. She said, "The managers at the deli were always good to me. I could not speak English and they took that into consideration and in fact they helped me to learn the English language. Many years later I worked at the Gourmet Deli in Spruceland. I liked working there because they arranged my work schedule for when my children were in school."
Hugo's career over these past many years was an amazing one. He started out by working in the sawmills for Carrier Lumber and then the planer mill for Rustad Bros. & Co.; from there he went on to the construction industry as an iron worker.
Hugo said, "I quickly found out that I loved heights. I could easily connect steel coming in by hoist at a height of 384 feet. The higher the better! I worked in the Pine Pass on the communication and microwave transmission towers. I spent the greater part of my career working for Farr Installations; contractors who worked shut downs at the mills, work that took me all over B.C. It was a great career and I enjoyed it right up to the day that I retired. An iron workers job is not easy; you have to be fit and steady and you have to be able to climb like a cat; being wiry and flexible is a huge asset. When I retired at age 63 I still did a few high altitude contract jobs for the mills. I was never afraid of heights or hard work."
A sport enthusiast Hugo says, "Soccer was the name of the game! I joined my first soccer club in Germany in 1949 as a knave which means ages 12 to 14 years old. I played the game all my life. I chased that ball around until health problems slowed me down and took me off the field."
Hugo played tennis for many years until his wrist gave him problems and he had to hang up his tennis racket. At one point in time he ended up in St Paul's Hospital to get a leaky heart valve fixed. He has ha d eight surgeries in his lifetime and that included open heart surgery just three years ago.
Hugo and Ursula raised two daughters Barbara (Andrew) Cote and Melanie and they have one "precious" granddaughter Alicia who is their pride and joy.
Hugo and Ursula concurred and said, "We have good friends and a great family. Our biggest accomplishment in life has been a long and happy marriage."
