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Young spread the golf gospel

Editor’s Note: Findlay Young passed away over the Thanksgiving weekend. Our condolences to his family and many friends. Findlay Young was born in 1928 in Glasgow, Scotland, where he practically grew up on a golf course.
Findlay and Nancy Young.
Findlay and Nancy Young.

Editor’s Note: Findlay Young passed away over the Thanksgiving weekend. Our condolences to his family and many friends.

Findlay Young was born in 1928 in Glasgow, Scotland, where he practically grew up on a golf course. Life was good in Scotland where the avid golfer had a choice of at least 122 golf courses to enjoy his sport.  

He was working as a sales representative for Texaco Regent Oil when he met and later married Nancy Adams – the love of his life.

Nancy was also born and raised in Glasgow. They married in 1955 and emigrated to Canada in 1957. They arrived in Vancouver and were robbed three days later, followed by a car accident one week after that.  

One month later, they seriously considered moving back to Edinburgh and they would have if it had not been for the 1956 Suez crisis. Findlay said, “I had served in the Air Force National Service in Scotland and if there was to be a war, I would be among the first to be called to go to war.”

Thankfully, Findlay got a job interview with IAC – a finance company. He was hired and given the choice of working in Nanaimo, Kelowna or Prince George. The job included an expense account as well as a car and instructions to golf with clients once a week during his time off.

He said, “When I arrived here by train I thought ‘what a terrible place.’ I had no luggage, no arranged accommodations and no one met me at the train and to make matters worse I was just plain angry and mad at the world. 

 “I purchased a razor and a clean shirt and eventually my golf clubs arrived. I was looking forward to playing on what I was told to be a lovely little nine-hole golf course which would soon be an 18-hole golf course. I was used to playing at private clubs; I didn’t know it but I was in for a shock. The golf course – compared to what we had in Scotland - turned out to be as rough and primitive as its surroundings. To make a long story short I could not see the greens. What was pointed out as the green looked like a bunker to me. They were not covered in grass but instead they were a mixture of coarse sand and crude oil. Your feet would sink down into the mixture but wooden scrapers were provided on each green to clean your shoes. I nearly lost it and I inquired about when the next train was leaving for Vancouver.  

 “Nancy and I settled in and slowly we met many great people.  Those we met first and made lasting friendships with were the families of Cliff Dezell, Harold Pretty, Matt Briggs, Jack MacDonald, Robby Laing and Vern Rikley.  

 “I changed jobs and we started our family of three sons; Crawford, Colin and Cameron who in turn gave us eight grandchildren. We only intended to stay here for five years. We started to love this one-horse town and the five years became 60 years when sadly Nancy passed away in 2017. Nancy was a champion in tennis, a champion in squash and a champion mother and we have three great sons to prove it.

 “My advice; when you change jobs and move, make sure you know all about it before you make that final decision.

 “When I changed jobs, I went to work for an insurance brokerage company for sawmill and professional liabilities with Gordon Bryant Insurance which became Thompson Insurance, then Saunders Insurance, Whitehead Insurance and finally Sedgwick James Insurance. I worked in the industry until I retired at the age of 65. 

 “Over the years we were able to do lots of work-related and golf committee related traveling so we felt pretty privileged about that. One of the highlights was my successful application for membership in the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews in Scotland. I am proud to say my application was signed by my good friend Peter Bentley.” 

Over the past six decades, Findlay had been involved in the sport of golf not only as a player but as a coach and administrator.  During that time, he won 53 golf competitions, which included 11 Prince George Golf and Curling Club championships between 1959 and 1970. During his career, he made a total of eight holes-in-one. The first one was in 1955 in Edinburgh and three at the PGGCC just to name four of them.

He was a director of the B.C. Golf Association from 1961-1999 and was an honourary life director. He served as president of the Royal Canadian Golf Association in 1993 and was an honourary life governor, which included being the captain of the Canadian team at the Pacific Rim and world amateur tournament in 1992. 

He was a director for the Prince George Mohawks senior hockey team for 10 years and wasinducted into the Prince George Sports Hall of Fame in 1998. 

Findlay had been a member of the Masonic Lodge since 1960.