Harvey was born on June 5, 1936 in Yorkton Saskatchewan. He was the third of four sons (John, Edward (Ted), Harvey and William (Bill) born to Stewart and Iris de Balinhard (Rogers). His early years were spent on the family farm located four miles southwest of Yorkton. In 1940 his father was called into action in the Second World War and Harvey and his brothers moved into town with their mother.
On July 28, 1943, when Harvey was 7 years old, his father was killed in action during the allied invasion of Sicily. This tragic incident left the entire extended family devastated and they rallied around Iris and the boys. Harvey often spoke of the support from his paternal and maternal grandparents as well as aunts and uncles during this time and throughout the years.
Harvey and his brothers grew up and went to school in Yorkton and his mother remained in the house at 101 Tupper Ave until her death at the age of 90 in 1999. Harvey often spoke of his school years and the great times he had with his friends playing baseball and hockey, sneaking into the hockey arena, delivering papers for extra money and riding his bicycle all over town. Harv had endless colourful anecdotes about his days at Simpson School with his teachers and his many buddies, Larry Owens, Dale Sharples, Glen Shave, Grant Edgar, Orie Windjack and others.
Harvey’s oldest brother John took over the family farm as a young man and the whole family did all they could to help John whenever possible. Harv told stories of small boys driving horse-drawn hay wagons, horses running away with wagons and of endless hours of stooking grain in the hot sun only to return in the evening to stook some more by the light of the moon.
Following in the footsteps of his dad’s older brother, beloved Uncle Digby de Balinhard, Harvey joined the Bank of Montreal right out of high school. Harv boarded with families in many small towns throughout Saskatchewan and Manitoba while he worked diligently and rose quickly from teller to more senior positions. He was assigned to the inspection team and travelled throughout the “Man/Sask” region
writing reports and evaluating various branches.
Harvey was eventually promoted to bank manager in Esterhazy Saskatchewan.
Esterhazy had a small store-front branch at the time and Harvey was one of the youngest branch managers in the bank. Then the potash boom hit Esterhazy.
As the town exploded with new businesses and demands for loans Harvey worked day and night to keep up with the new business in the bank. A new building was found to house the rapid growth and, with the help of senior bank officials, the Esterhazy branch of the Bank of Montreal grew that year to become the fastest growing new branch in the country.
As a reward for his great success in Esterhazy, the bank assigned Harvey to a dream job. For the spring and summer of 1966 Harvey became manager of the in-house branch of the Bank of Montreal in the beautiful Banff Springs Hotel. There his duties included wining and dining wealthy clients of the bank, golfing daily on the magnificent hotel golf course, and entertaining a number of the young women employed by the hotel for the summer.
One young waitress at the hotel had the effrontery to turn down Harvey’s invitation to dinner and he was intrigued enough by this unexpected rejection to check out the staff list to find her home address. He showed up on her doorstep in Burnaby the following spring with a second invitation to dine. This time she accepted and they headed out to the Smiling Buddha for some fun. The waitress was Carol Day and she and Harvey were married in 1969 after he left the bank and prairies behind to move to BC for the rest of his life.
Harvey and Carol lived on the North Shore at a variety of addresses for the next 39 years, moving to Coquitlam in 2008. Early in their marriage Harvey worked for the Industrial Development Bank in Vancouver and Carol began her long career with the Coquitlam School District. Harvey eventually left the bank and pursued a number of entrepreneurial ventures over the years that followed. He was a partner in a successful industrial landscaping business in the 70’s and early 80’s, bought and built up from receivership the Black Sheep pub in Maple Ridge, owned a Quiznos restaurant, and ventured into various land development and construction projects.
Harv had the independent spirit of an entrepreneur and was not afraid to take on new challenges. He almost bought a golf course in Salmon Arm just before his marriage. The financing was in place to buy the course but unfortunately Harv’s business partner died before the sale was completed. Who knows what life would have been like for Harvey and Carol if not for that unexpected turn of events?
One can say with certainty that the two happiest days in Harvey’s long life were November 15th, 1982 when his son Timothy was born and September 8th, 1987 when son Michael arrived; of course, the saddest day was May 20th, 2014 when he and Carol lost their dear son Tim.
After they were born the boys became the most important thing in Harvey’s life. The second most important, of course, was golf, which was his true passion. He spent endless hours teaching golf to the boys, his nephews, Carol and anyone else who would listen. Harvey truly missed his calling as a teaching pro. He also loved cheering on the boys at soccer, baseball and hockey and volunteered to help whenever he could. Harv was a passionate gardener and both Michael and Tim could attest to long hours spent weeding, mowing and raking in the huge back garden at the house on Dresden Way in Blueridge.
Harvey was born into a proud and loving prairie family that endured hardship and loss with immense courage and resilience, devotion to family, discipline and good old hard work. He was a strong man who lived life his way. When you marry, you don’t just marry a man, you marry a family and there was so much to admire and love in this family. The de Balinhard family reunions were legendary and continued throughout Harv and Carol’s married life with the most recent at Sooke in July 2019.
Harvey leaves behind many loving friends and family, including wife Carol and son Michael, his brother and sister-in-law, Barb and Ted de Balinhard and their family, cousin Pat Graham and her family, brother-in-law Richard Day, wife Susan and their family, cousins Bob and Judy Tanner and family, cousin Elizabeth Tanner and sisters-in-law Shirley and Norma de Balinhard and family.
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