Les Pearson, pictured during a city council meeting in November 2013, had died at the age of 78. --NEWS File PHOTO
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Les Pearson, a two-term city alderman who often advocated for public service portfolio of local government during the 2010s, has died.
Pearson, 78, passed away on Boxing Day. He was also the founding principal of Eagle Butte High School and the city’s first ever inclusion coordinator to improve city services for those with mobility issues.
He also sat as a local community board member for Covenant Health after it took over management of St. Joseph’s Home and added hospice care. He served as a member of the national Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Canada.
“He was very socially conscious, and every decision that he went into, you could tell that he really had the welfare of everyday citizens in mind,” remembered Coun. Robert Dumanowski, who served with Pearson from 2010 to 2017.
“His sense of humour – he was very articulate and expressive – it made him very affable. He was very professional and… could consider the depth of the situation.”
Pearson was re-elected in 2013 following a key vote to build a new Medicine Hat Event Centre and a flood that summer marked by controversy of alderman thrown “under the bus” for supposed inaction during the emergency.
Pearson, however, quickly produced a photo of himself on an actual bus, volunteering to deliver evacuation notices with other city staff in low-laying areas of the city.
He also campaigned on a plan to offer utility breaks to small businesses who qualified by offering a “living wage” to employees, and later argued city council put too much weight on operating business units, rather than providing services.
“We’re in a position to, we can do something about it and we have the resources to do it,” said Pearson that fall.
Pearson moved to Medicine Hat in 1996 to become the first principal of Eagle Butte High School. That involved not only hiring the new high school’s first compliment of teaching staff, but working out operating agreements, setting out policy and a vision for the institution that will turn 30 in 2026.
“There are very few administrators who have the thrill of opening a new school,” he told the News on Labour Day weekend in 1996. “This is a giant opportunity for us to start over and build a brand new and different school.”
Funeral arrangements have not yet been announced.
