Shigeshi Nagano

Shigeshi (George) was born on February 24th, 1934 in Kagoshima, Japan. He was the second eldest son of seven born to Shigenori and Aki Nagano and the only one in his family to immigrate to Canada. He is survived by his wife Sumie, daughter Patti and granddaughter Kiko.

He first came to Salinas, California in 1962 working on produce farms and learning about American culture where he met Sumihiro Nogata, Sumie’s brother. They became friends and upon returning to Japan in 1964 he was introduced to Sumie and they were married in 1965.

After working and farming the lands in Tashiro, Japan they decided to immigrate to Canada and landed in Vauxhall, Alberta working on potato farms with other Japanese wanting to move to Canada. In 1968 his only child Patti was born and they continued building their life in Alberta until 1972.

In 1973 they were asked to come to Surrey, BC by the Fujioka’s to work on their mushroom farm introduced by mutual friends in the Japanese community. He learned about the mushroom business and was taken under the guidance of Stan Fujioka and in 1975 he and Sumie rented the mushroom farms of Casper Mervin in Aldergrove, BC while living in their basement and saving enough money so they could start their own business.

In 1980 they purchased 5 acres of land in Langley, BC to build eight mushroom barns and a new house to start G & S Mushroom Farm. He worked tirelessly building his farm business for 12-years until the farm was sold in 1992.

He moved to Langley Meadows upon the sale of the farm where he enjoyed gardening, going for walks,matsutake picking, building with wood, watching any type of sports on TV especially Sumo and taking care of his granddaughter Kiko.

Shigeshi suffered from diabetes and went to dialysis treatment for the last 5-years of his life and was in Surrey Memorial Hospital from May-July 2023 until he moved into Langley Lodge care home in August 2023. On September 3rd, he was again admitted to Surrey Memorial Hospital where he passed away peacefully on September 10th.