In the pages of the Goldstream B次元官网网址 Gazette heB次元官网网址檚 known as G.E. Mortimore. Some simply call him GEM.

At 93, George Mortimore has been writing columns for more than 50 years, a good portion of that with the Goldstream B次元官网网址 Gazette.

B次元官网网址淚 am not sure how long IB次元官网网址檝e been writing for the Gazette, IB次元官网网址檝e just lost track,B次元官网网址� said Mortimore.

Until recently Mortimore was a regular contributor to the Goldstream B次元官网网址 Gazette, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and the Lower Island B次元官网网址.

He is recovering at Royal Jubilee Hospital after surgery to get a pacemaker as well as radiation therapy for a growth on his ear. He hopes to continue his writing after he heals.

It has, after all, been a significant part of most of his nine decades.

As a teen in Duncan, Mortimore got his first taste of journalism covering high school football games in the 1930s. Soon he began cover other community news and events.

B次元官网网址淭丑别 Cowichan Leader was very different then. It was a community institution with a stationary store on one side and a pharmacy on the other,B次元官网网址� he said.

Mortimore remembers a filing cabinet in the back of the newspaper office with information on every group and organization in town.

B次元官网网址淓veryone got in the paper whether they did anything or not,B次元官网网址� he said.

Mortimore continued reporting for the Leader, now the B次元官网网址 Leader Pictorial, until he joined the airforce at the age of 20. He became a navigator and flew around the world helping pilots find their way long before the invention of GPS.

B次元官网网址淲e flew in a Hudson, the same (make of) plane as Amelia Earhart,B次元官网网址� Mortimore said.

Mortimore went to England and was assigned to the bomber command during the Second World War.

B次元官网网址淒ad got the mumps so they had to delay him,B次元官网网址� said MortimoreB次元官网网址檚 son Michael Mortimore. B次元官网网址淗e then went to India to ferry aircrafts B次元官网网址� He didnB次元官网网址檛 get front line command, but 50 per cent of the bomber command never came back.B次元官网网址�

After five years in the military Mortimore returned to Duncan and asked for his job back at the B次元官网网址 Leader.

B次元官网网址淭丑别y said they wanted to get government grant money to help train me,B次元官网网址� Mortimore explained. Unhappy with that option he headed south to Victoria and was hired at the Daily Colonist.

He covered the hotel beat and interviewed celebrities and dignitaries staying at the Empress and other fancy hotels. To get the scoop on who was coming to town, Mortimore became close friends with hotel managers.

He interviewed the late English comedian, George Formby and participated in a media scrum with U.S. President Richard Nixon.

In 1958 he received the National B次元官网网址paper Award for a series he wrote titled The Strangers. It focused on the living conditions of indigenous people.

B次元官网网址淭丑别 award was given to me by the National MenB次元官网网址檚 Press Club. Women were very underestimated in journalism back then,B次元官网网址� said Mortimore.

Eventually he started to write the column All Aboard which became syndicated across the country.

After 11 years of All Aboard, Mortimore left the Daily Colonist and headed to Toronto to write for the Globe and Mail where he worked for five years as a social affairs reporter.

B次元官网网址淚 used to write about the social distress and how to fix it,B次元官网网址� he said. B次元官网网址淚 donB次元官网网址檛 want to give the idea I was big fish at the Globe, because I wasnB次元官网网址檛.B次元官网网址�

During a series he wrote on violence in hockey, Mortimore travelled by bus with hockey players including Tim Horton, Bobby Orr and Gordie Howe.

After leaving the newspaper business in 1962, Mortimore became an anthropologist and taught at universities in Guelph, Edmonton, Vancouver and Victoria.

When he decided to leave teaching he took a year and filled in as an editorial writer for The Province in Vancouver.

Mortimore remained a writer through all of his lifeB次元官网网址檚 endeavours and plans to continue his craft with the public for as long as he can.