Fred North poses for a photo last week after being named this year’s Oilman of the Year. Taylor Weaver Meridian Source
This year is starting off to be full of surprises for well-known Lloydminster oil patch personality and philanthropist Fred North.
The 76-year-old workhorse continues to operate TNT Tank and Trailer in semi-retirement on a farm south of Blackfoot with his wife, Lilly, and recently got a phone call that threw him for a loop.
It was from Ryan Rowan, president of the Lloydminster Oil and Gas Open Bonspiel committee, naming North as this year’s Oilman of the Year.
“I never expected to be getting anything like that. It’s really something for an old truck driver who’s not good for anything,” said North with a laugh.
The downside, however, is the realization he has to throw a ceremonial stone to kick off the 54 annual bonspiel at the Lloydminster Golf and Curling Club March 16-19.
“I did a wee little bit of curling way back when I was a youngster. I’m not a curler. I will try a Koe special or something,” he said, in reference to Alberta curler Kevin Koe.
North’s complete life story in the oilfield trucking business will be read out loud at the bonspiel banquet at the WLC Convention Centre on March 17 —with a fresh accolade worth mentioning.
The celebrated trucker is one of 51 Lloydminster area residents to receive a Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal in a ceremony at City Hall on Jan. 15.
“That was another surprise. That’s two surprises in my life lately. As long as I don’t get my picture in McCaw’s, I’ll be okay,” he joked.
North has been in oilfield trucking for more than 45 years with his business career highlight being the purchase of TNT that sells, services and rents trailers.
It has allowed him to give back to the community with the launch of the Fred North Charitable Foundation with his associates in Ventures North Financial Group Inc.
“It’s kind of nice to be able to do a little bit here and there,” said North.
The Foundation’s mission is to help communities, charitable organizations and individuals in need to achieve their goals of helping others to make the world a better place.
In recent years, the Foundation has donated $100,000 toward the purchase of a para-transit van for Border City Connects and just over $41,000 for a transit bus for Lloydminster Big Brothers Big Sisters.
North’s Foundation also purchased the naming rights for the Fred North Community Centre housing The Olive Tree for $150,000 among many other big-ticket donations in the region.
Recently, his Foundation purchased equipment for the Stollery Children’s Hospital in Edmonton from TNT’s Grande Prairie location, and the list goes on.
North’s favourite subject though, is trucking.
“It was a fun thing to do. I’d drive around all day and get paid for it so it was pretty nice,” he said about his career in the business.
North got his start behind the wheel driving for Kodiak Petroleum in 1968.
Six years later, he bought his first tractor truck and became a subcontractor to Temor Oil Services in 1974 until he bought the company in 1990.
It was operating 32 trucks at the time and when he sold it in 2002, it operated 149 trucks.
Looking back, North says the 70s were good, the 80s were up and down and the 90s started off slow, but around 97 it went pretty well for a few years—with driver shortages being an industry norm.
“We always had good truckers; that’s what made it work for us,” he said.
Over the years, North has amassed an impressive collection of old tractors and vehicles, including a restored Ford snowmobile once used by the late Dr. G.L. Cooke in Lloydminster.
He said Cooke’s sled was purchased by a fella in Fort. St. John who had it for 18 years, and when he died, his wife sold it to a collector in Surrey, B.C. where North brought it back to Lloyd.
“It runs. It’s got the cab on it and everything,” he said.
“Back in the heydays, they did a lot of house calls and Dr. Cooke was well known for always getting there no matter what, so he had this for winter time and sand buggy for summer.”
North has also purchased a few fine vehicles at the Barrett-Jackson auto auctions in Arizona including a car designed by Elvis that stays parked under a roof.
North, however, will be pulling into the bonspiel driving a late-model pick-up truck.
