Good afternoon, colleagues. Robert Earl Hanna was born in the Hanna farmhouse on February 7th, 1938. The farm is located outside the village of Port Maitland, Ontario. He was the eldest of 4 children to Earl and Marion Hanna.
During his celebration of life, a couple of stories had us laughing, like the time he tried to cut a hole in his bedroom closet to make a secret passage to sneak out. His brother Larry told on him, which put a stop to those plans. As an older teenager he would sneak out his bedroom window by climbing down a tree and head into the town for some late-night adventures. His parents eventually found out, and the tree was cut down. This was Bob, always thinking how to make the next adventure.
During his celebration of life, they spoke about the farm, his work and adventures until he ended up in Fort Simpson. I have attached this at the end of this statement and would like them deemed as read.
In 1987, Bob moved to Fort Simpson to work for the Fort Simpson Housing Authority. After a good career with the Local Housing Authority, he retired and started his own business Bob's Mechanical. People asked I thought you retired? His reply was I got too much stuff to do. I can tell you Bob loved Fort Simpson and the people. As the old saying goes, home is where the heart is, and Fort Simpson was his home. Bob was a generous man, generous with his time, especially helping people in the middle of the night when their furnace went out or with his resources. He had always had any tool or supplies in his shed that you needed, and he'd have no problem letting you have it or borrow it.
Bob was a hard worker to ensure his family had a roof over their heads and food in their belly. I can tell you he made the best fried chicken in town and would oftentimes open the house on Friday nights to the neighborhood kids for his famous chicken and chips followed by pancake breakfast in the morning.
The family farm was 80 acres with cattle, horses, pigs and chickens. Much of the work had to be done with a team of horses on the farm, so he learned about hard work at a very early age.
Bob attended Dunnville High School; he was very smart but bored with school. He wanted to work, learn a trade, and make some money. He was determined that farming was not to be in his future. His first job was at Powell's Shipyard on the Grand River, just a couple of miles from the family farm.
At age 19, with a friend he drove his VW Beetle out west on what was to be a vacation. He never returned to live on the farm again.
He first lived in Elrose, Saskatchewan. Where he owned his first business with his brother-in-law (Elrose Plumbing and Heating).
In the late 60's he went on to work in the Potash Mines in Saskatchewan and by the 1970's he moved to St Albert AB, where he lived on a little country property where he had some chickens he raised. This is the closest he ever came to farming. When the 1980's rolled around, he discovered the NWT. First living in Yellowknife, where he owned his own business.
