Gerry Hodgins

In a quote from Gerry’s bio as a Leather Artisan:

“Although I was raised in Ottawa, my parents and most of my relatives were country folk, which may
account for my fascination with the rural way of life and with the old fashioned skills associated
with it”.

Gerry grew up in a family of six children. When he was young he spent some summer holidays in
Stittsville helping his Uncle Howard deliver the mail and work on his farm. Gerry also thought well
of his Great Uncle Gib-- maybe because he had promised to buy him a tractor. When the family moved
to Manitou he often played hockey on his backyard rink with all the other neighbourhood kids. As a
teenager Gerry was a member of the Governor General Foot Guards where he started to play his first
instrument, the snare drum. He eventually graduated to a full set of drums. He always enjoyed going
to watch Drum Corps competitions.

Gerry was drawn to Centralia College of Agricultural Technology because of his early rural roots.
The luckiest part of this experience was meeting his future wife Bonny. After school he came back to
Ottawa and worked as a Lab Technician for the Department of Agriculture. Gerry and Bonny got married
in 1974 and eventually moved to Rainy River, Ontario where he started to work for the CN railway and
did leather carving as a hobby. He developed an interest in it after winning first prize for a
wallet at the Ottawa EX as a child in 1964.

They did come back to Ottawa for a short time and started Hodgins Cartage. Gerry enlisted his
brothers to help with the moving and deliveries. His brother Mike remembers that he was told to give
the C.O.D packages from Eatons to an adult in case it was a Christmas gift. He did not want to spoil
any child’s surprise.

In 1978 he moved to Edmonton with his brother Glenn and friend Bob Hall where they got work with the
CN railway. Eventually, Bonny got transferred to the Eatons out there. Gerry started doing leather
crafts in earnest. At this time he started dyeing his leather pictures as well. Gerry had a hand
carved saddle on display at the Alberta Pavilion at Expo 86 in Vancouver.

While in Edmonton he and Bonny had their first 2 children, Andrea in 1981 and Matthew in 1984.Gerry
& Bonny came back to Ottawa in 1985 when the caboose was eliminated on the trains and he started to
work for Tandy Leather in Ottawa. They had another child Mark born in 1987.

He went to work at Upper Canada Village in 1988 and was the Shoemaker there until 1995. Once again
he was working in a rural venue. In 1995 Gerry and Bonny moved into their home on Otto Road in
Newington. He called his new home Burdock Acres mainly because that was his most prolific crop. He
also raised exotic chickens, which in the end unfortunately, were negatively affected by the ice
storm and raccoons.

Gerry eventually developed strong computer skills and spent many hours researching many topics. He
was definitely a self- taught man. He also became quite interested in horticulture after taking
courses at Kemptville College and created some wonderful perennial gardens around his home.

Unfortunately Gerry’s health started to deteriorate in the late 1990’s and because of this he
was unable to participate in a lot of the things he really enjoyed.

Gerry actually did get his tractor in 2007 when Matthew bought him a John Deere Garden Tractor for
Fathers Day. Gerry actually made really good use of it this summer after finishing his
Chemotherapy.
He also was very happy to feel well enough to get back to Picton for one last holiday this summer
when we celebrated his parents 60th Anniversary.


Gerry was a Pioneer at heart and happiest when closest to Nature.