After nine years as general manager at Gold Eagle Lodge, and a lifetime in the hotel industry, Malcolm Anderson is taking on a new challenge: that of retirement.
His last day of work at Gold Eagle Lodge was Friday, June 2.
“At 5 o’clock they physically threw me out of the building,” Anderson joked.
On Tuesday, June 6, a come-and-go retirement social was held at the hotel, which allowed Anderson’s many acquaintances from the business and tourism sectors, among others, to drop by to personally pay their respects and wish him well.
While Anderson is no longer working full-time, he will be busy. His wife Linda has been in ill health and so he is taking on a new role, as a full-time caregiver at home.
But it’s not something he will have to go through alone.
“This community, with its help home care program, has been just amazing,” said Anderson, who said they “have been just absolutely phenomenal to us.”
Anderson wraps up a career in the hotel industry in Alberta and Saskatchewan going back half a century.
Just recently, Anderson said, he had been listening to a radio program which noted it was the 50th anniversary of the Beatles’ album “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.”
“I had the very first copy of that working at Chateau Lake Louise that summer 50 years ago,” said Anderson.
“It was a summertime job while I was going to hotel school. But I thought, holy mackerel! I’ve been at this game for a long time.”
His career took him to Sunshine Village, the Calgary Inn (on the management training program), and then the Hospitality Inn, a hotel on Calgary’s south side in which he was involved in building “literally from a hole in the ground.”
From there he went to Jasper, where he ended up spending 19 years running the Chateau Jasper.
Anderson moved into semi-retirement after that, including some time in food inspection and with the Cowboy Trail Tourism Association (promoting the scenic Highway 22 in Alberta), when he got a call “out of nowhere” offering him the job at the Gold Eagle Lodge.
He particularly credited Battlefords Tribal Council and Russ Brown for their support of him over the years.
“I had never worked for somebody I had so much respect for right off the get-go,” said Anderson of Brown. “He gave me a lot of freedom.”
It was during that time that they released themselves from the management contract with Airline Hotels when it came up, with Brown and the ownership putting their faith entirely in Anderson to run the hotel.
“He had that kind of faith in me to carry the ball by myself,” said Anderson.
“I love sports, so when a coach hands you the ball like that, or whatever the game is, you go out there and do the absolute best for him, and I believe I did.”
During his time in North Battleford Anderson has taken an active role on a number of boards, serving as a director on the Battlefords Chamber of Commerce for a number of years.
Most recently, he was chair of the board of Destination Battlefords, a role he relinquished this year with his retirement.
Anderson plans to stick around the Battlefords for the immediate future. He said he “loves the community, loves the people of the community,” and called his time here an “awful lot of fun.”
But about a year ago, after he turned 70, Anderson realized it was time to retire.
Anderson leaves Gold Eagle Lodge with pride about the hotel’s accomplishments. The hotel and its staff have won or been nominated several times for quality or customer service awards over the years, including the Battlefords Business Excellence (BBEX) Awards, Saskatchewan Tourism Awards of Excellence, and others.
“I think if you talk to anybody that knows me they’ll tell you I’m the most competitive S.O.B. there is,” said Anderson, who admits it’s these sorts of honors that have driven him over the years.
“I love competition. So, everything I ever did was a bit of a competition, but at the same time I always wanted to give the absolute best experience to a guest,” he said. “Give people a great experience, and they’ll spread the word.”
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