Chummy Plummer has passed away. Karen and I have met Chummy several times. When we got off the plane at Great Bear Lake, Chummy was there to shake our hands. Chummy was always there to say good-bye at the end of our stay! Below is a wonderful tribute to Chummy. It is well worth the 5 minute read. Chummy will be missed by so many!
...from Great Bear Outdoors
“There was no one else like him. He lived his life on his own terms and I respected that. There will never be another.” - Tim
The first week of June, just like many times before, Chummy Plummer climbed on board one of his float planes bound from Winnipeg for Plummer’s Lodges in the Northwest Territories, raring to start his 70 season on Great Slave and Great Bear Lake. There were generators that needed to be fixed and fuel hauls that needed to be done, and he wasted no time getting at it when he got to camp. He loved all of it. He loved this life and he was going to live it, no matter what. The lodges were his passion. Each Spring when he arrived up North, he was home.
Guiding from the age of 13, getting his pilot’s license at 15, he was the third generation of Plummers in the Lodge business. His Grandfather Chummy Plummer and Dad Warren had been in Yellowknife since 1935 starting with a pool hall in Old Town just below Bush Pilot’s Monument. In the 40’s they started Plummer’s Lodges on the east arm of Great Slave Lake at Taltheilei Narrows. Chummy was a trailblazer, eventually buying the lodges from his Dad in the ‘70’s and growing Plummer’s Lodges into the entity it is now. During this time, he received his Business Commerce degree from Moorhead State. In all his summers at the Lodges, he only came out of the bush once, and that was to go to his college graduation because he promised his Mom that he would.
Chummy met countless numbers of people, many who became like family. Ask pretty much anyone who met Chummy Plummer and it became clear that to meet Chummy was to know there are certain people that you cross paths with who make a lasting impact on your life. Often referred to by guests as “the Legend”, one friend. Curt, said, “When I was a kid, I always said, if I ever met Chummy on the street, I would stop him and ask him for his autograph. Later in life I had chance to meet and do business with him and despite our age difference, I considered him a good friend.”
Up North this Spring, when Chummy was asked what he considered his biggest accomplishment of his life at the Lodges, without hesitation he replied, “Building the airstrips, at Great Slave, Great Bear and Tree River.” Chummy personally built these airstrips where 737 jets could land, and did.
Spring and Fall, it would not be unusual for Chummy to work on his own, from driving the D9 Cat pushing the rocks into the dump truck, climbing into the truck and dumping the load, and then hopping on the backhoe or driving the grader.
Besides 737’s, the two main strips accommodate Hercules, 727’s, ATR aircraft, which haul cargo, and guests into the remote fly-in Plummer’s Lodges in the Arctic. This is the North country where planes are your vehicles and the skies and lakes are your highways.
In the early days, step by step, year by year, Chummy moved necessary equipment over ice roads, and later in Hercules airplanes, to continue building the strips longer and wider to hold larger aircraft. For many years, his trusty DC-3 flew guests from Great Bear to Tree River, landing on the Tree River strip.
These past years, Chum had the help of many great people who worked tirelessly with him on the air strips because building an airstrip is one thing and keeping it well maintained is another.
The airstrips are just one example of Chummy’s vision of what needed to be done and his drive to accomplish anything he set his mind to. Those who knew Chummy, knew that all he needed to hear was, "that’s impossible" or “it can’t be done” and he would immediately set out to prove just the opposite. Every improvement he made was with the Lodge guests in mind and making it better for them.
From moving every building but the main Plummer’s Great Bear Lake Lodge in the late 1960’s,150 miles over ice roads from Sawmill Bay to the northeast side of Bear on the Dease Arm in -40 below temperatures, to marking out an airstrip on the ice on the Arctic Ocean for the Herc to land near Tree River, Chummy was never daunted by huge challenges. He met them straight on, devised a strategy and made it happen.
Chummy touched the lives of so many people along the way, often giving them a second chance. There were those who considered him a father figure. He could be a tough boss and you knew that if you screwed up, you were going to hear about it. He expected a lot out of people; he knew what they could achieve and in many cases he helped them achieve it. He wanted people to be the best they could be and with that, many of his staff have come back for 25 years or more. Some for the full season and some, now lawyers, realtors, financial advisors, who specifically carve out time to come up to work at the Lodges. Plummer’s staff is truly a family, even holding Plummer reunions off season. The camaraderie and friendships they have built with each other and the respect they have for the Lodge guests, is driven in part through Chummy’s example.
Chummy’s family regularly visited him up at the Lodges but from a young age his nephew Chandler was Chummy’s constant shadow. He came up to the Lodge one summer to visit and never went home. Chandler spent ten summers learning the ropes from Chummy, everything from the role of “snack man”, to grooming the cabins of the 737’s before guests boarded.
Chummy always called a spade a spade. There were no pretenses. There was a huge and kind heart under that sometimes serious exterior. He was selfless and loving in his own quiet way. His dry sense of humour and wit never ceased to make you laugh.
Chummy really enjoyed hunting. It was a chance to get together with his buddies and they meant a lot to him. He was a true marksman. He started hunting at a young age but what really made him excel was his attitude, to “take the shot”, even if you thought you might miss it. Chummy would say, “Go for it. If you don’t take those hard shots, how are you ever going to know what you can truly do.” That was truly a metaphor for his life.
As a young kid, Chummy spent a lot of time with his two sisters. His sister Berva tells of the time Chum brought home a motor bike without a motor and convinced his Mother to borrow the motor off of the washing machine to get it running. She relented and he made it work, but Monday wash days the motor had to be back on the washing machine. Valery would ask Chummy to sew her doll clothes, her “big brother” always complied.
Chummy and Lori had a love for the North and love for each other. They worked together in the business. She understood his vision and drive and worked alongside him accomplishing their goals.
Chummy was a rock to his wife Lori. He was a loving son to Adeline and Warren Plummer, his sisters, Berva (Joe) Bocklage and Valery Plummer. His nephews and spouses, Jorgen (Sonja) Bocklage, Barrett (Crystal) Bocklage and Chandler (Alanna) Bocklage, his great-nephews and great-nieces, his sister in-law, Merrilin Poersch and Lee-Anne Poersch, and his extended family, Rebecca Parkinson and Andrew Parkinson and families.
Chummy’s spirit lives on in the legacy he leaves behind – in the Lodges he loved, the strips he carved, and the people he shaped.
“When I got off the plane, Chummy looked at me with a huge grin and said, ‘nothin’s changed...well, it has.” – Steve
A Celebration of Life will take place at a later date.
