Boyd Affleck

Boyd Affleck

I cannot say enough good things about Boyd Affleck. He was around sixty-five years old when I

went to work for him as a teenager. Mr. Affleck—and I called him that until the day he died—

was both an engineer and a surveyor. He ran for the Liberal Party in several federal elections and

was an alderman for the City of Nelson. He was an honourable man. He never, never drank and

he never smoked. He was a scout leader. I remember him being the leader of a camp that I

attended when I was eight or ten years old. He was a great man.

Mr. Affleck’s support was crucial. I worked with him as an assistant surveyor for several

summers in high school. He always treated me as an adult. I was doing adult work and making

reasonably good money. I financed myself all the way through university and could even afford

to get married in the last year. I financed the wedding personally, too.

Mr. Affleck was a hard worker, and he set a real model for me. On one occasion I worked thirty-

six days straight over the summer. He came to me and said that I had to take a day off because he

was just not able to keep up with supervising me. Of course, he was the surveyor responsible for

the work I was doing. I just wanted to make money so I could go to university.

He did not preach about hard work, honesty, and accuracy. He just modelled these qualities. He

was the nicest, hardest working person that I was ever associated with. He was also tough,

diligent, and never gave up on anything. No matter where we went, how cold it was, how much

snow was on the ground, or how wet it was, he never complained.

It was a big joke. Another friend of mine also worked for him and said that every lunchtime, Mr.

Affleck would stop, and he'd invariably make a fire in a stump or something, even in a

wilderness area. And he would lay down and have a fifteen-minute snooze at lunchtime and then

get up and get back to work.

Working with Mr. Affleck offered a good hardworking summer job that really built up my

expertise and interest in surveying. By the time I finished grade twelve, I had put in three good

years working for Mr. Affleck. By then, I got promoted to an instrument man.

Lives and careers are shaped by the people around us. One individual, even if they come into

your life by accident, can set you on a completely different path than what you might have

planned. For me, this key person was Boyd Affleck. He had as much impact on me and my

career as my parents.