Archie and Kathy Smith celebrated their 63rd wedding anniversary on February 18th, 2013. They were both born and raised in the Prince George area. Archie was only two months old when he came to Aleza Lake in 1926 along with his parents Sidney and Mary Smith, his grand parents, his sister Grace (Tom) Dillworth and brother Wilfred. His parents were originally from Admiral Sask. They homesteaded about two miles out in the bush from the Village of Aleza Lake. Archie explains, "We lived two miles outside of the town site. Our road was a mere walking trail so in the summer time we would often paddle the wooden boat across the small lake into the town site to save the two miles."
In 1932 they moved into the town site.
In the earlier days his dad had a very successful trap line and sometimes worked at S.B. Trick Sawmill.
In 1942 the Smiths moved to Vancouver. Archie worked at Boeing Aircraft until he was 18. In 1944 he joined the army for two years. Archie said, "It was the best training I ever had."
In 1946 the Smiths moved back to Aleza Lake and Archie went to work for S.B. Trick Sawmill. That same summer he met Kathy Neil, daughter of Duncan and Alice Neil. Kathy was born and raised in the neighboring town of Giscome. Kathy was going to school in Prince George; they met in Giscome when she was home for a weekend family visit. Archie moved to Giscome and worked for Eagle Lake Sawmills while Kathy worked in Prince George at the McArthur Medical Clinic for Dr.'s McArthur, Chambers, McLaren and Dr. Jack McKenzie. She also worked at the Hazel Archer Dress Shop. After four years of courting, and lots of dancing and commuting back and forth Kathy and Archie got married and lived in Giscome until 1959.
From there they moved to Burns Lake with their then three children; the fourth child would be born four years later.
Archie was a safety award winning superintendent for Pearson Lumber Company and 11 years later they moved to Houston and then back to Prince George. In 1971 Archie started with the Council of Forest Industries and all the work related traveling as a lumber grade inspector continued. In 1973 he became a partner at Apollo Forest Products in Ft St. James until his retirement in 1986.
Archie said, "We raised four children and now we have nine grandchildren and so far we have two great grandchildren. We made sure we took a family holiday every year: After retirement we motor-homed a lot until we took up cruising and from there we went to three month winter vacations in the sunny south. We still managed to do lots of fishing at Franois Lake in between."
Archie is a 62 year member of the Royal Canadian Legion and a 50 year member of the Masonic Lodge.
Kathy is a 52 year member of the Order of the Eastern Star and a 40 year member of the Hospital Auxiliary.
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