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Next Fireside Chat at the Whyte features Banff’s Roy Andersen

Chic Scott's next Fireside Chat at the Whyte Museum features longtime Banff local Roy Andersen on Thursday night (Oct. 24)
Roy Andersen submitted photo
Roy Anderson SUBMITTED PHOTO

BANFF – Roy Andersen, said Chic Scott, is a man who has been at the heart of the Banff community for about six decades.

Having lived so long as a member of the Rockies community, Andersen has known many of the most intriguing and colourful of Banff’s old-time characters.

But Andersen’s own story, Scott said, is one worth knowing more about too. During his lifetime, Andersen has been a soldier, a ski jumper, a ski instructor and a skilled and talented photographer.

Among his most captivating stories are likely to be those that centre around his childhood, Scott said. Growing up in Norway during the years the country was occupied by Nazis, Andersen lived through difficult, harsh times.

“Roy’s home of Kirkenes in Norway was an organizational centre for Hitler's war against Russia,” Scott described. “The Russian Air Force bombed Kirkenes heavily and the Norwegian citizens were caught in the middle.”

Learning more about Andersen’s childhood in Nazi occupied Norway and sharing those stories with the Banff community is just one reason Scott was inspired to choose him as the subject of his next Fireside Chat.

Another reason is that Scott has known him for many years, believing they likely first met in the 1960s, or 1970s.

“I have known Roy for a long time,” Scott said. “But it’s really during the last 10-12 years that I have gotten to know Roy well.”

Among Andresen’s treasure trove of stories and memories, Scott said he most looks forward to hearing about the years when he worked as a ski instructor at Sunshine Village in the early 1960s. He also looks forward to hearing about Andersen’s working with Gerry Johnston – a highly respected disabled skiing pioneer – and Clifford White and his wife Bev.

But he’s especially looking forward to hearing Andersen’s stories about his good friend Catharine (Robb) Whyte, founder of the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies, and how he taught her to ski.

The latest in Chic Scott’s series of terrifically popular live Fireside Chats, which are sponsored by the Wim and Nancy Pauw Foundation, takes place on Thursday (Oct. 24) at the Whyte Museum in Banff. The show begins at 7 p.m. and tickets are $5 and available at www.whyte.org/events. Admission for Whyte Museum members is free.

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