Earlier this year, a fundraising committee was formed with the purpose of raising funds for an arena lobby renovation, with Carol Kinzer at the helm. The idea to honour former Killam resident Gordie Enghoj came up, and Kinzer says, she couldn’t say no to the job, adding, “When Gordie passed during COVID, we couldn’t honour him as he properly deserved, so this is something we can do to preserve his memory. We can give him a final sendoff.”
Kinzer and her energetic committee gathered silent and live auction items, and pre-sold tables and sponsorships prior to the event, raising nearly $25,000 before it started.
The evening was a huge success, with a full house ready to support the arena lobby renovations and to celebrate Enghoj’s memory.
Committee Member Susan MacKinnon offered a moving tribute to Enghoj after dinner. She said, “Every single person I asked was happy to chat about him… And in remembering Gordie, he made a ripple, that just like in life, kept getting bigger and bigger. And probably the loveliest thing of all was that everyone remembered him with a smile.”
MacKinnon talked about the trials and tribulations in Enghoj’s life. Having been infected with polio at age two, he wasn’t expected to live, she said. “But Gordie’s spirit proved stronger than any virus, and against the odds, he survived.”
His recovery was long and hard. “Polio didn’t kill Gordie, it crippled him,” MacKinnon quoted. “His throat muscles and vocal chords were damaged permanently, and he was left with mental deficits. His spine developed a curve that would contract his lungs and cause him chronic back pain throughout his life.”
Growing up, Gordie worked at various tasks, helping anyone who needed it, she said. “He became known as a dedicated, reliable, hard worker, but his parents had a rule that he was not allowed to be paid for the work he did.” MacKinnon said often his ‘payment’ then would be coffee, pie, or even occasionally as he grew older, a beer.
Enghoj was well-known for his girlfriends. “His #1 girl seemed to change often, and thus began a special, affectionate relationship with Gordie and the female population of Killam and surrounding area. If he was asked how many girlfriends he had, he would say, “1,600, and they’re all female!”
MacKinnon said the place that would come to have the most significance for Enghoj was the Killam Arena. “He and his dad were two of many volunteers who helped build the original arena which opened in 1950. When it burned down in 1960, afraid for how distraught he might become, no one wanted Gordie to see it.”
She said it was a proud moment for Enghoj when the area was rebuilt in 1961, “just in time for the famous New Year’s Day Tournament, where he was given the honour of dropping the first puck.”
With the expanded facility, Enghoj expanded his duties. “He had a key to every door in the building, knew the schedules for the arena and pool by heart, and truly cared about everything that went on.”
Hockey was the game that would garner most of his attention, MacKinnon said, and his devotion was obvious. “He would tie skates for the little kids until his fingers bled.” She said before there was a Zamboni, there was Gordie with a barrel of water on wheels to flood the ice.
“Gordie would meet visiting teams and show them to their dressing rooms and he became such a constant, that if he was missing, the opposition would wonder where he was and if everything was ok.”
She said that one educator of people with disabilities said that Gordie’s story was the best example of integration into the community that he had ever seen.
Enghoj was struck by a puck one evening, and it was local Don Kueber who took him to the hospital, MacKinnon said. “That trip began a friendship that would span the rest of Gordie’s life, and grow to include Don’s entire family.”
MacKinnon said she got a call from Kueber’s son who said, “Everyone would say it was so good of Dad to take Gordie around. But Dad, and our whole family, got just as much out of that friendship. It was just as good for my Dad, and he used to say if everyone could just have a friend who was a loyal, genuine, and pure as Gordie.”
Continuing with Enghoj’s history, MacKinnon said he was made the honourary Team Manager of the Senior Killam Indians hockey team, and later the Killam Jr. B Wheat Kings named him their #1 fan. Enghoj became a staple in team pictures, MacKinnon said, even when his Killam team won on the road.
“Gordie’s position within the hockey family gave him a special place – one of pride and inclusion. It was a safe place, and the teams he spent time with developed a culture with Gordie at their centre.”
MacKinnon shared a personal memory of taking a team photo for the Wheat Kings, and watching the care and attention given to Enghoj as he navigated the ice, looking like a small child beside the players. “The way they treated him, they were really saying, ‘We got ya Gordie, we got ya.’ It seemed to be a complete reflection of all the times Gordie had this town’s back… and it was a beautiful thing to see.”
MacKinnon said there was a serious side to Enghoj as well, as he cared for his aging father, and cared about anyone who was ill. “Whatever Gordie did, he did with sincerity and to the very best of his ability, and it brings to mind the quote: I can’t do all the good the world needs, but the world needs all the good I can do.”
MacKinnon says that Enghoj built a solid group of friends who took him to games, attended Christmas, Halloween, and birthday parties, and “most importantly, picked him up for coffee.”
The Battle River Community Foundation held a Community Builders dinner in Enghoj’s honour many years ago, raising a substantial amount, and even auctioning off certificates for the chance to be Gordie’s #1 girlfriend, MacKinnon said. At the end of the night, she added, Gordie gave his own thank you speech, to a standing ovation from those gathered.
“More than one person has said that he was the best ambassador Killam ever had. Gordie didn’t just enhance our community, he elevated it. Gordie made us all a little more patient, a little more understanding, a little more inclusive, and a little more kind. He made us better people, and in turn made this community a better place to live.”
There wasn’t a dry eye in the house as MacKinnon proposed a toast in Enghoj’s honour.
The live auction followed her presentation, with Dale Jones and Darrin Holben in fine form, also sharing special memories of Enghoj. The silent auction ran until later, with a lot of donated items to bid on.
The evening was a real tribute to Enghoj and his life and times growing up and living in Killam, and as Kinzer said, was a true proper send off.
The event raised over $104,000, and will go a long ways towards creating “Gordie’s Den,” in the arena lobby, in the beloved building where he spent so much of his life and which meant so much to him, over this summer.
Leslie Cholowsky
Editor
