Loss of an aviation legend.

• Author: Migneault, Jonathan

Harvey Friesen, a business icon for Northern Ontario, and the former president of Bearskin Airlines, died Feb. 2 in Palm Springs, California. He was 65 years old. "The whole Bearskin Airlines family is very saddened by this news," the airline said in a statement to Northern Ontario Business. "We want to extend our thoughts and prayers to Harvey's family and friends. We also wish to respect the privacy of his family at this time."

Friesen's earliest ambition was to become a commercial pilot.

While in high school, he drove a school bus to pay for his pilot's licence. After he graduated, he worked at a gyprock factory in Saskatoon to pay for his flight hours.

He later took a job at a grocery in northwestern Ontario's Big Trout Lake First Nation, where he had the chance to fly a small plane to pick up supplies.

Friesen hauled firewood and stocked shelves at the store, occasionally earning the chance to hit the skies for what was the original Bearskin Airlines.

Bush pilot Otto John Hegland founded the company in 1963.

In 1972, Friesen purchased half the company. Five years later he bought the remaining half. "I've always liked to eye opportunities to see the potential in things," Friesen told Northern Ontario Business in 2008.

By 1978. he moved the airline towards scheduled charter and passenger services. He later sold half the business to his brother Cliff, who served as its executive vice-president.

Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s Bearskin expanded and enhanced its service to many northwestern Ontario cities...