June 2017
COMMUNITY NEWS Happy 100th birthday to John Harlow RenfrewCollingwoodCommunityNews.com
by Paul Reid
Herbert Harlow and Rose Campbell met while working at Vancouver General Hospital. They married and had their first born, John, in 1917. In 1925, John’s wife-to-be, Georgette, was attending Norquay School. John and Georgette met when they attended South Vancouver high school (now, John Oliver), married in 1939 and moved onto Chambers Street. Three of their four children would also attend Norquay School. John would later build a new house on Chambers Street in 1950. He bought the double lot for $600. This is the house he still lives in today with his son David and his wife Sylvia. So, we have had a Harlow living on Chambers Street for over 78 years. We have also had a Harlow driving city buses in Vancouver since 1945. This is the year that John started driving city buses for Neville Transit.
Above: Three generations of transit operators (from left to right), David, Michelle and John Harlow in front of the house on Chambers Street. Left: Here are members of Neville Transit with one of the Neville buses. When drivers formed a Union, Mr. Neville fired everyone. When the B.C. Labour Board ruled against him, Neville sold the company to B.C. Electric.
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Even before that, John was a driver, driving trucks for the Boeing company on Sea Island during World War 2. He remembers driving up to the gate one day and the guard told him to park the truck and go home. The war was over, the plant was closed and everyone was laid off! That same day, on his way back home, John would not only find a new job, he was taught his route and started driving that day!
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