The Village of Green Lake is preparing to say goodbye to one of its long time leaders.
Earlier this week, former mayor Fred McCallum passed away.
McCallum began his political career in 1975 when he was elected as a councillor to the region’s advisory board before Green Lake became a municipality.
In 1994, he was elected mayor and served in this position until 2003.
McCallum took a one-term break before returning as mayor in 2006 and serving another six years in office.
Tina Rasmussen, the administrator for the village, worked alongside McCallum for several years.
She says the former mayor will be missed.
“The biggest thing that I remember about Fred is his leadership style,” she says. “Fred was always caring, compassionate and the community and youth and children in our community were always first and foremost in Fred’s mind and he used the young people in the community as a guide to help him make decisions about what was best for the community.”
Rasmussen adds McCallum was very easy to approach and friendly with the staff. McCallum was also a proponent of the province’s Moose on the Loose Campaign.
The issue was a deeply personal one for him as he and his wife were involved in an auto collision with a moose in 1999.
McCallum survived but his wife did not.
Funeral services take place Saturday.