Margaret (“Peggy”) and Gordon Racine were lifelong citizens of Saskatoon. As a couple, they valued honesty, hard work, and living within their means. Over the course of their 50 years together, they raised a successful family of three children who went on to serve the citizens of the province in their own chosen careers as a nurse, a dentist, and a social worker in the criminal court system. To honour Gordon and Peggy’s memory, their children have decided to endow a charitable fund in their name to advance the work of causes that were most important to them.
Gordon Racine was born on a 1000-acre farm near Radisson, the second of six children. His father, Ralph, went south in the winters to work as a marble cutter, So Gord shouldered a lot of responsibility at a young age. He lobed to play the fiddle and he loved rural Saskatchewan and everything about small-town life. He earned a BSc in Agriculture at the University of Saskatchewan in 1937. Peggy Wilcox was born and raised in Moose Jaw with three brothers. She was a smart, engaging thoughtful young woman who obtained a university degree in household science in 1936, well before it became common for women to attend institutions of higher education. She married Gordon in 1939 and the couple made their home in Saskatoon during the lean wartime years. He was one of the first people in the country to receive a professional designation from the Accredited Appraisal Institute of Canada (AAIC). He was a highly-respected land inspector who traveled throughout rural Saskatchewan, had friends all over the province, and knew its rural life intimately and well.
During the half-century that they were married, Peggy and Gordon worked hard and thought it was important to repay their own good fortune by contributing something back to the community in which they lived. Peg was an active member of the YWCA Women’s Auxiliary for all of her adult life. She was a talented organizer with an easy laugh who thought it was important for women to support other women in their efforts to build a successful family life. For more than twenty years, she volunteered at the YWCA Opportunity Shop which raised significant amounts of money for their residential home for women and children in crisis. Gordon was President of the Saskatoon Minor Hockey Association, and a member of the Saskatoon Kiwanis Club, the Regina Kinsmen Club, the Golden K, and and a Past-President of the Saskatoon Real Estate Board. Peggy and Gordon also were active members of Knox United Church until their deaths in 1991 and 1996 respectively. They were members of the Riverside Golf and Country Club.
The family wishes to honour their parents by continuing their legacy of proud Saskatoon citizenship. Their children have established the Gordon and Peggy Racine Family Fund to support the two community organizations that best reflect their parents’ life and work, the YWCA Women’s Guild and the University of Saskatchewan, College of Agriculture and BioResources. Through this endowment, Gordon and Peggy’s legacy will continue to work for the causes they held dear. They were good, generous, hard-working people who were loved and are still missed by their daughters Barbara Wallace and Pat Walker, son Bob, daughter-in-law Barb Racine and grandchildren Karen Racine, Nicki Ault, Janet Murray, Jordan Walker, Brett Walker, and Colin Walker.