ONE YEAR AGO
l RCMP investigated two sudden deaths in less than 24 hours after a body was found in Rotary Park. The body of a 40-year-old man was found on a bench in the cook hut. Then police were called to a wooded area between the West Park subdivision and the trail system. They found the body of a 47-year-old man. The man had a makeshift camp set up and was in a sleeping bag when he was found, said police.
l Merv Phillips, CEO of Red Deer Regional Airport, said he would retire the end of June to play more golf and travel with his wife, Bernice. Phillips added his decision to leave was planned for some time.
l An Eastview home burst into flames for the second time in four days. The first fire caused about $2,000 damage. Investigators believed a stack of burlap bags spontaneously combusted.
l Gisele Marie Johnson, who allegedly abducted her son Orey almost 15 years ago in Red Deer, agreed to be extradited back to Canada to face charges. She chose voluntary extradition rather than face an extradition hearing.
10 YEARS AGO
l Red Deer College student representatives protested that post-secondary education was becoming just for the rich as tuition rose again. The 11 per cent increase meant student tuitions had tripled in the past decade.
l At least 200 workers were evacuated from Fletcher’s Fine Foods plant after a bomb threat. Hundreds of other workers were prevented from entering when they arrived for their shift.
25 YEARS AGO
l Agriculture scientist Howard Fredeen ended is 37-year career at the Lacombe Research Station because he was tired of working under Agriculture Canada policies he could no longer tolerate. The 62-year-old researcher said one of the most galling administrative changes in the research department had been the diversions of western research money to the eastern Agriculture Canada facilities.
l Young couples in Penhold produced babies at almost three times the national average, a review of Alberta vital statistics showed. Penhold’s 1982 rate of 40.18 births per 1,000 people, almost tripled the 14.9 Canadian figure and more than doubled the Alberta birth rate of 19.6. The main reason for Penhold’s high rate was its young population said the director of vital statistics with Alberta social services.
50 YEARS AGO
l Swarming over the opposition like a pack of green hornets, the Alberta champion Red Deer Rustlers overwhelmed the Vancouver Carlings by a 14-3 score in the first game of the best-of-five interprovincial series in the semi-finals of the western Intermediate “A” playoffs. Probably not up to peak due to the 10-day lay-off and the train trip from the Coast, the B.C. champions were completely at the mercy of Ray Hannigan’s warriors.
l About 250 teenagers occupied Red Deer for the 13th annual Western Canada Teen Conference. Eighteen Alberta clubs were represented, but Saskatchewan and British Columbia clubs were unable to attend.
90 YEARS AGO
l A keen interest was taken in the Child Welfare Institute that was held at the Methodist Church. The subject of child welfare makes an appeal of special interest to mothers but the secretary, Rev. E.S. Bishop, proved beyond question that the work in which he is engaged is “a man’s job.”
l John Waters was found hanging dead at Harleck, 16 km from Nordegg, but no particulars had been so far received.
100 YEARS AGO
l Piper and Co., a local brick manufacturer, looked forward to a better year in 1909 after 1908 sales were deemed to have been the worst in the firm’s 18-year history. Company officials attributed the poor sales to the overall state of the local economy.
l A three-hour meeting of the Red Deer Liberal Association was well attended, attracting “nearly all the workers from the riding.”