Dean Finlayson – Past Chatwin Engineering Director is Honoured (Monday August 30, 2010)

Dean Finlayson – Past Chatwin Engineering Director is Honoured

On Thursday, August 12, 2010, the Nanaimo Daily News profiled the late Dean Finlayson.  Dean served on the Chatwin Engineering Board of Directors.  The following is the article from the Nanaimo Daily News:

 Honour for the late Deane Finlayson comes from generosity of Harris family
Finlayson a prominent Canadian, loyal Nanaimoite
 
Derek Spalding
Daily News

Thursday, August 12, 2010

A road leading into Neck Point Park now bears Deane Finalyson's name.

Joan Finlayson recalled the time that her husband Deane got an important phone call while the couple lived in a cabin on what would later become Neck Point Park. She took the cellular phone and swam into the ocean where he was floating on his back in the water.  "And he just took the call right there lying on his back," Joan said. "He wasn't usual."
Deane Finlayson kept a low profile in Nanaimo, despite his enormous stature. The six-foot-three businessman was once the poster boy for the B.C. Conservatives when elected leader of the party back in the 1950s.
He also served as a pilot in the Second World War, earning The King's Commendation for Valuable Service in the Air; and he was the visionary behind Woodgrove Shopping Centre, transforming Nanaimo into a regional shopping hub. Five years after his death in 2005, his name will be enshrined on a roadway on one of the first properties he bought and developed.
City council members honoured the late developer on Monday by naming the road leading into Neck Point Park as Deane Finlayson Way.
Finlayson was known and respected across the country.   Former Prime Minister John Diefenbaker represented the Nanaimo man when he was charged with contempt of court for making public legal details about bribery allegations against a member of the Social Credit government.  Diefenbaker volunteered to help out his close friend and had the case dismissed.  Finlayson was also made an honourary chief of the Shuswap First Nation because of his political effort to gain rights for the people he grew up with as a child.  He became known as Chief Straight Tongue.
Finlayson is responsible for preserving the land that later became Neck Point Park and Piper's Lagoon Park. Rather than develop the property, which would have been extremely lucrative, he kept it as pristine as possible.
The children of Nanaimo businessman Tom Harris lobbied the city to rename the street in honour of Finlayson. The family had purchased the right to name a street at an auction fundraiser with that intention. Instead of naming a new street, they pushed to rename an old one.
Mike Harris presented the new street sign to Finlayson's wife Joan at Monday's council meeting.  He and his brother Tony both remember fondly the time they spent playing in the woods at both parks, which were just down the road from the family home in Hammond Bay.   "If Mr. Finlayson thought more in terms of the developer that he was, Neck Point would look a lot different than it does today," said Mike. "But he thought first as a charitable citizen and we are so lucky to have this as a park."
Tony echoed his brother's sentiment.   I think anybody who lives in Nanaimo and has visited Neck Point Park or Piper's Lagoon, knows that those are the two best parks that any community could have. His contribution to what we all get to enjoy is insurmountable."
Finlayson was a large man with a deep resounding voice and he had the charisma to charm the masses, according to records of his political career. The Vancouver Sun praised the "handsome, slow-spoken" leader when he swept onto the scene as "one of the glamour boys of B.C. politics."
Finlayson's savvy, however, was not enough to earn him an election win. He lost in two provincial elections and two federal elections. Diefenbaker admired Finlayson and offered him a vacant deputy minister of transportation position in Ottawa, but the loyal Nanaimo man did not want to relocate.   “I told him I couldn't succeed at the job, because my body would be in Ottawa, but my heart would be in Nanaimo," Finlayson is quoted in his biography Chief Straight Tongue, written by friend and former colleague Donna Dash. "I believe we live in heaven on earth."
Finlayson was a father figure and mentor to many people, including former mayor Gary Korpan, who wrote an introduction to Dash's book.
Brian Chatwin knew Finlayson for years.  The owner of Chatwin Engineering explained his admiration for his old friend.  "If I was to ask: Who are the two greatest people of the history of Nanaimo? I would say it's Frank Ney and Deane Finlayson. They took this community from a small coal-mining town to the great city that it is today," Chatwin said. "Finlayson taught me the importance of using skills and influence to evoke change in the community."
Joan recalls her husband's unusual ways and his willingness to work with people to help them with any difficulties they may have been facing.   She laughs when she tells the story of the flotation device that Deane created, on which he kept a drink and a cigar in tow while he swam the waters off Neck Point.