The Seredick Family Nick Seredick arrived in Kimberley via train in 1936 from NE Alberta. His first job was
hand digging ditches for the CPR at Campman Camp. His wage was twenty-five cents
an hour. After six months of digging he managed to hire on with Cominco where he
began a thirty-eight year career underground. He worked as a timberman before getting
into development mining. The last six years of his tenure were spent operating a slusher.
Nick and his wife Helen, who both hailed from northern Alberta, had five children, all born in Kimberley. Raymond (1936), Sylvia
(1938), Gloria (1940), Ron (1943) and Jim (1949).
Ray had a short Cominco career before becoming BC's youngest Game Warden at age 19.
He was with the Fish and Wildlife Service for fourteen years with postings at Clearwater and
Smithers. He married Delma Nelson (Axel and Marg). Together they had three children: Rion,
Laurel and Cara.
Sylvia lost a leg to cancer at age sixteen. Unfazed she became one of Western Canada's first
paraplegic downhill skiers. Tragically, she and her husband Tom (Lyons) were both killed in a
car accident in 1961.
Gloria became an outstanding amateur athlete who at one time held Canadian field records
for discuss and shotput. She was a BC Basketball All Star and a fully qualified swimming instructor.
She married Fred Blocksidge (Frank and Thelma O'Grady). They had a daughter, Darci. Gloria
spent a number of years working for Cominco (Teck) at the Concentrator prior to retirement.
Ron had a promising baseball career stunted by a near fatal car accident when he was seventeen.
He graduated from UBC in 1970 and began a long distinguished teaching career at the high school in
Port Alberni. He retired in 2003. Ron married Helen Blain (Oscar and Mary Blain) in 1968. They
had twin boys: Alan and Steven.
In 1949 following the Big Flood of '48, Nick bought a lot on McDougal Townsite for $500 and built
a house at 377-8th Avenue. That was the Seredicks' Kimberley address for the next fifty plus years.
Jimmy was born in 1949. After four years of attending school Stateside, he graduated from UBC in 1974 and went to Port Alberni where he taught English at the high school. He remained on staff for the next thirty-seven years before retiring. In 1977 he married Vicky Pankewich (Joe and Annie...Saskatoon). They
had two sons: Nicholas and Michael.
Nick's younger brother, Sam, came to Kimberley a number of years
after Nick. Sam and his wife, Katie, lived in Happy Valley for many
years with their three children: Shirley, Clarence and Martin. Sam
had a long mining career with Cominco prior to his retirement.
as told by Jim Seredick
