PDG Harold W. Hicks
District Governor (101) 1945-1946
PERSONAL
Harold was born in 1888 in Meglund, Manitoba, and received all his education in that Province. He graduated from the University of Manitoba with a Bachelor of Science degree in agriculture and moved to the Fraser Valley in 1916 shortly after marrying Orrie Lydia. They had three daughters and one son. He was superintendent of the Dominion Experimental and Research Station at Agassiz for 37 years, and became one of the world's leading authorities on Clydesdale horses and Holstein cattle. He is the only person to have been President of both Canadian Clydesdale Association, and of the Holstein-Friesen Association of Canada.
ROTARY Harold was a charter member of the Chilliwack Rotary Club and was its second President in 1935-36. Active in all phases of Rotary, he was an ideal Governor. The LaConner and Mission Clubs were chartered in his year. His Club honored him in many ways: Honorary member¬ship while M.P., Life membership; and a Paul Harris Fellowship Award just prior to his death in 1974, on the way to visit the Abbotsford Club.
COMMUNITY SERVICE He was active in many ways as a citizen of the Fraser Valley and of Canada. He played a major role in organizing the Agassiz community to fight the 1948 Fraser River flood. In 1973 he was named Chilliwack's "Citizen to be Recognized". In an editorial following his death the Chilliwack "Progress" said in part: "Among the citizens of Chilliwack and Agassiz he will long be remembered for his contributions to the community, and for the manner in which he exemplified the art of zestful living".
The station at Agassiz under Harold, was one of the pioneers in the research on artificial insemination of cattle; Harold being one of the two first recipients of the Master Breeder Shields presented by the Holstein-¬Friesen Association of Canada. Early on, this was a controversial subject, and Harold spoke on many occasions to promote its benefits to the cattle industry. In addressing the Vancouver Rotary Club on this subject he illustrated its advantages by having a young heifer led into the ballroom of the Vancouver Hotel to make the point that its father had been dead three months before it was conceived, but that the father's history of high pro¬duction progeny gave this heifer a greater milk production probability than any living bull in the area could.
After retirement he was elected member of Parliament of Canada for the Fraser Valley at the age of 70, and served with distinction in Ottawa one four year term.