Roderick Goff

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Much has come and gone over the last seven decades in Gander, but at least one thing has remained - Roderick Goff.

A resident of the community since 1940, the 93-year-old Mr. Goff has had a long and storied history with the town - serving the Gander International Airport in a variety of capacities until retiring in 1981, and raising two sons with his late-wife Alice Goff.

Far from a shut-in, Mr. Goff remains interested in current events, as evidenced by the sight of his Telegram carrier delivering his Wednesday paper. It was only in recent years Mr. Goff gave up his swimming hobby, and he still makes his own trips to local stores and businesses.

In his post-retirement years, Mr. Goff turned his eye towards education, studying at Memorial University, Saint Paul University in Ottawa, and the University of Ottawa, from which he received a honours cum laude degree in 1991 - his third university degree.

He remains one of the few living links to a time when Gander was not even a real town, and decided to draw upon those experiences with his 2005 book Crossroads of the Worlds: Recollections from an Airport Town. The book compiled stories about his life in Gander.

Q: What was it that brought you to Gander?

A: I was hired on by Patrick McTaggart-Cowan. He was the chief meteorologist. He had been in Botwood before the operation in Gander.

Aviation was developing, and in 1938, when the airport was built, they planned to use land planes instead of boats. Then when the (Second World War) broke out in 1939, they needed a lot of bombers in England, and the way they got them there was from California to Montreal, Montreal to Gander, and Gander to Northern Ireland, which was part of the United Kingdom - Southern Ireland was neutral in the war.

McTaggart-Cowan, who had the experience in Botwood, was moved to Gander, cause it was now going to be a major operation with the land bombers. So, McTaggart-Cowan moved to Gander, and the meteorological office was moved from Botwood to Gander.

Then, when the Royal Canadian Forces came to Gander for submarine patrols, Gander became a main base for them.

They had to build housing near the hangars for staff there, because there were single and married people there. We had a big cafeteria.

When America came to the war, they setup an American operation at the other side of the airport, so then you had Canadians and Americans on the other side of the field.

They were doing anti-submarine patrols too, but they were also flying to Europe. It was a big operation.

Q: What were your impressions of the town at that time, coming into it in 1940? Was there much for you to do outside of work?

A: There was always a recreation room. The army had their own recreation (facilities) - ping-pong, and stuff like that. It was the same thing with (RAF) Ferry Command. There was a recreation area where you could play cards or ping-pong.

The railway went right by the airport too, and the only way to get out of Gander was to take the train or an airplane. Even to go to St. John's, you had to go by train, and eventually Air Canada started an operation where they'd go from Sydney, N.S. to Gander, and then Gander to Torbay.

We could go to St. John's on Air Canada or take the train, or we could go west on the train. You could fly to Halifax too on Air Canada.

We weren't really isolated.

There were some civilian radio operators who had worked in Botwood too, and there were six or eight building houses in Gander. There was only 96 family houses here at the time.

Q: What was your living situation like at the time? Did you live on the airport?

A: They constructed buildings for civilians. There was one for meteorological staff - it was a two-storey building.

We had good accommodations, with individual rooms, and downstairs there was a fireplace. We had space to play cards, dance - we had good quarters.

There was only one store in Gander - the Goodyear Humber Store. They had a grocery store, and then they enlarged to include dry goods.

It was normal living, other than having the war on. Day-to-day, it was normal.

Q: At the time, did you think to yourself this would be a place you'd spend the rest of your life?

A: We thought there would be a town there, because we knew civilian aviation would take over the Atlantic. It was wartime operations then, but in peacetime we knew (the airport) would develop into what it did - an airport where there were 12 different airlines operating.

Besides Air Canada, you had Air France, Lufthansa, KLN, and these other international flights that came to Gander after the war. Pan American had flown through Botwood ... they had land planes. But after the war, Pan American, Trans World Airlines, and American Overseas Airlines came to Gander.

Any nation in Europe that had an airline, they all got into the trans-Atlantic business. People wanted to get to North America, and people in North America wanted to get to Europe.

It lasted about 15 years, and then the jets came in, which didn't require landing in Gander. You can get an aircraft now in Vancouver, B.C. that would fly all the way to Europe.

They're all jets today. When the jet aircraft came in, that's when Gander started to lose its support.

Q: Would you say that's the greatest change you saw over your time at the airport?

A: Oh yeah. The jet was a big change. We could see it happening before our eyes. When an airline got a jet, they didn't come in. They didn't have to refuel.

You had Shell here and Imperial Oil, who were handling refuelling these land aircraft during the war, and that was big business. When the jet aircraft came in, after a while there was very little business for the gasoline.

Gander was an airport town, but when we became a part of Confederation, that's when the government started to move people away from Gander, and then it become what it is today - more of a business town.

Then the Trans Canada Highway was built, and that went by Gander, so it just changed from an airport centre to a business centre.

We do still have the airport, but as you know, activity there is nowhere near what it used to be.

Q: I know a lot of famous people have passed through the airport over the years. Was there anyone in particular you had a chance to meet who was memorable?

A: Well, Frederick Banting (inventor of insulin) was the one. He was flying on one of the bombers. He was a major in the air force and doing research in the United Kingdom. So, he had to come through Gander.

I was in the weather office on Feb. 20, 1941, and Hugh Bindon was too. Dr. Banting was resting in the airport inn, where they'd have a nice rest and takeoff in the morning.

He came into the office at 10 p.m. just to check weather on the Atlantic Ocean, then went to bed.

He came in, knocked on the door, and said "I'm Fred Banting." Never said I'm Dr. Banting or Maj. Banting - he had a uniform on. Everybody knew who he was. He was well known worldwide.

He said he'd just come over to check what the weather would be like tomorrow, because they were heading off in the afternoon. So, Bindon gave him a briefing to show what was happening, and we chatted for awhile.

He took off the next day in the afternoon, and they were only flying for about an hour before they had to turn around, and then they crashed in Musgrave Harbour. That was the end of that - sad.

His great-grandson came to see me a couple of years ago. His aunt was in St. John's on a holiday, and I had an article in the paper about Dr. Banting, and she saw this article - she had married into the family.

When she left, she showed the article to her family in Toronto, and they didn't know there was a guy here who had seen Dr. Banting before he lost his life.

The grandson called me up and said he'd like to see me to talk about Dr. Banting, so he came up and we had a talk.

The man flying that aircraft (Capt. Joseph Creighton Mackey) survived, but he's been dead now for about 10 years. When Mackey died, I was the only one left alive who saw Dr. Banting before he died.

I also saw (British Prime Minister) Winston Churchill, and (actress) Maureen O'Hara. Her husband (Charles F. Blair Jr.) was a pilot for Pan Am, and I had briefed him. He was killed on a flight from Anchorage, Alaska, just a private flight.

When Maureen O'Hara learned I knew of him, she came to see me. People like to meet people who knew their relatives. I knew him professionally.

When she was going back, I said "I'd like to get a picture of you, but I don't have a camera," so she said, "Why don't you get a picture of the two of us?"

Ed Pike from CBC was there, and had a camera, so he took a picture of the two of us.

Q: It mentions in your book how you pursued university studies after you retired. What attracted you to studying humanities in particular?

A: I don't what it was. I had worked in technical all my life, and I had a couple of years done at Memorial University. They had some classes here in Gander.

I'd done some correspondence courses with the University of Ottawa, and I kind of like Ottawa, so I went up there. My wife had passed away.

Q: You seemed to be in great shape for a guy who's 93. Do you have any secrets to your durability?

A: I think your genes have something to do with it. My father lived until he was 86, and my grandfather lived until he was 80.

On the other hand, how you treat your body is important. If you're a smoker, you know you're going to shorten your life. I was never a habitual smoker.

What you put into your body is important. You can probably have genes for a long life, but if you drink too much or smoke too much and drive kind of foolish, that will shorten your life.

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