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Downtown parkade to be named
after
transportation pioneer
Gordon Sorensen
reprinted from Red Deer Advocate (Laura Tester) June 15, 2010
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Shunda Construction labourers install signs on the southside
facade of new downtown parkade Monday.
Photo by
Randy Fiedler, Red Deer Advocate
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Red Deer's new three-storey
parkade will officially be called Sorensen Station.
City council approved on Monday the name of the parkade at 4830-48
St. in recognition of Gordon Sorensen, considered the transportation
pioneer for Red Deer and surrounding area.
Sorensen launched transit service in Red Deer in 1957 and also
developed school bussing and all highway buses into Central Alberta.
Sorensen died in 1981 at the age of 77.
Six members of Sorensen's family, made up of three generations,
attended council's meeting where they received gifts from the mayor
and congratulatory handshakes from all of council.
Saskatoon resident Cecil Sorensen, son of Gordon, said he'll feel
very proud when he travels by the parkade one day and see the words
"Sorensen Station" on the building. He described his father as a man
of vision who was "very forceful in his ways."
"I know my parents would have been very pleased," said Sorensen. "He
(Gordon) would have been flabbergasted, very honoured."
Sorensen said the bus line was his father's life. He started it,
first with one bus in Red Deer, when Cecil was small.
"I can remember the first bus -- it had a flat nose," Sorensen said.
"We lived in Rocky Mountain House and drove back and forth."
The bus service eventually grew to 14 buses before Gordon Sorensen
sold it to the City of Red Deer in 1966.
News article: Newest city ghost unveiled downtown
(Red Deer Express May 2012)
News article: Ghost unveiled
(Red Deer Advocate May 2012)
News article: Classic bus cruises city streets
(Red Deer Advocate June 2011)
News article: Transit to retire last low-floor
vehicle
(Red Deer Advocate Feb.2011)
News article: Parkade named Sorensen Station
(Red Deer Express June 2010)
News article: Rare GM public bus saved by city
bus man
(Red Deer Express Dec.2009)
Evolution of Transit in Central Alberta
History of Red Deer Transit
Michael Dawe article related to transit heritage:
Sorensen Station a fitting tribute
(Red Deer Express June 2010)
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