Margaret (Van Dyke) Hougen

Margaret Van Dyke arrived by military aircraft in the small dusty town of Whitehorse for the first time in the late 1940s. She was young and was prepared to work hard with her colleagues to set up temporary blood clinics for the Red Cross Society. The blood donations from soldiers during World War II had been very successful and the Red Cross was determined to continue with this effort in the post war era. The availability of blood in peacetime allowed for a whole new range of medical treatments. For five years Margaret travelled the roads of Alberta, and flew by military aircraft into remote communities such as Whitehorse and Yellowknife, collecting blood from Canadians for the Red Cross.

Margaret was born in Edmonton, Alberta, on November 21, 1929, to new immigrants from The Netherlands. She grew up with three siblings speaking only Dutch before she started elementary school. Her mother, Martha Van Den Kieboom, was Catholic, and her father, Gerard Van Dyke, was Protestant. Their relationship was not supported by their families in the Netherlands because they wanted to marry someone from a different faith. Margaret’s father emigrated to Saskatchewan, with Martha following a year later. They moved to Edmonton in 1926 where they raised their children in the Catholic faith. Margaret’s parents remained in Edmonton until Gerard’s death in 1964 and Martha’s passing in 1976.

In 1953, Margaret’s sister, Roslyn, asked Margaret to move to Whitehorse to help her with her first child. Margaret jumped at the chance and booked a flight north. The Canadian Pacific flight was unlike any direct flight to the Yukon today. It was a propeller plane that stopped in many communities and could take up to eight hours on its way north to Whitehorse.

When asked to describe her first year in Whitehorse Margaret said, “It was a fun town with fun people.” Her sister, Roslyn, was married to Walt Nielson, a member of the RCAF and a member of the RCAF officers’ mess, which was one of the social centers in the community. While Margaret’s sister was busy with the baby, Margaret attended many of the formal mess events, accompanied by her brother-in-law. It was at the Queen’s Coronation Ball in June, 1953, that Margaret met her future husband, Rolf Hougen.

The story of their meeting became a legend in the Hougen family. Margaret attended the ball escorted by Dr. Bill Buchan at the request of her brother-in-law, who was tied up with managing the event. Rolf attended the same ball with his own date. When Rolf saw Margaret, he went to Tom Shadbolt at the bar and asked, “Who is the blonde?” Tom explained that it was Walt Nielson’s sister-in-law. Soon after, Rolf took his date home, went back to the ball, and asked Margaret for a dance. That was the beginning of a beautiful Yukon romance.

In 1955, Margaret married Rolf who ran a local department store with his parents. Rolf expanded his business interests into radio, television, car dealerships and satellite, while Margaret stayed at home raising their six children; however, she was a key advisor to Rolf as he grew the businesses. Every evening, after the children were fed and ready for bed, Margaret and Rolf would sit in the living room and discuss the day, both business and family issues. All significant decisions were made together during these evening discussions.

At the same time, Margaret, with her husband Rolf, developed a strong network of Whitehorse friends. The Hougens, Tanners, Buchans and Nielsens shared a cabin at Marsh lake, and spent many weekends together. In those years, transportation to the south was difficult and phone calls were expensive, so in the Yukon, people’s friends became family. Many Sunday nights together were spent visiting, cooking and playing games. When a picnic table quietly landed in someone’s backyard during the night the recipients were expected to be the host family for the next Sunday evening gathering.

Margaret and Rolf loved to travel the world starting with a four-month honeymoon in a Volkswagen car in Europe. As the war was still in the minds of many Europeans, the German car and its naïve occupants were not popular in places. In France, they endured tomatoes being thrown at them.

In 1976, Margaret and Rolf moved to Europe with their six children (Craig, Kelly, Karen, Erik, Greta and Maureen). They made Grenoble, France, their home for a year so that their children could attend local schools, learn the French language and experience new cultures. It was quite the undertaking because neither Margaret nor Rolf could speak any French. It was a long way from the life that they lived in northern Canada; however, the experience influenced the family’s future for years to come. One of their sons, Erik, followed in his father’s footsteps by representing France as the honorary consul for Whitehorse.

In the early years in Whitehorse, Margaret was a member of the Whitehorse community choir and a member of the local curling club. While her time was fairly limited raising her own large family, she was a strong advocate for helping others—and was known to assist individuals or to make significant donations in support of the community at large. When asked what she would have been if she’d had a career after she married and had children, she quickly smiles and says, “A social worker.”

Margaret repeatedly says that she has had a wonderful life and never imagined that a little Dutch girl from Alberta would grow into a strong matriarch of a large Yukon family that now included eighteen grandchildren and many great-grandchildren—most of whom have made Yukon their home.