He’s no stranger to battle


Charlie Bernhardt guided the BCFGA through one of themore difficult periods in its 125-year history. By Susan McIver


hether as a soldier, orchardist or president of the B.C. Fruit Growers’ Association during one of its most turbulent periods, Charlie Bernhardt has always tackled a job head-on.


W


Born in Yugoslavia, Bernhardt originally lived in Nelson and then came to Summerland with his parents in 1934.


“I always wanted to be a fruit farmer and was envious of classmates whose parents owned orchards,” Bernhardt said.


His father was a plasterer and brick layer by trade.


Before Bernhardt could realize his dream of owning an orchard, he spent five years fighting with the Canadian Army in the thick of the European theatre of World War II.


On D-Day, June 6, 1944, he was one of the 14,000 Canadian soldiers to go ashore at Juno Beach on the Normandy coast of France as part of Operation Overlord.


The long-awaited operation led to the liberation of Western Europe and eventual defeat of the Nazis.


“I served in an armoured brigade as a radio operator and gun loader in a tank,” said Bernhardt.


The two men operating the barge that was to ferry his tank from the ship to the shore were killed early in the voyage.


Without operators the barge drifted aimlessly, finally landing sideways on the beach hours later than planned. “It was quite a slaughter,” said Bernhardt recalling the sight of bodies and wrecked equipment lining the road as his unit went inland.


Bernhardt fought through France and Belgium and participated in the liberation of The Netherlands. “Anyone who has gone through a war will agree with me that wars are futile,”


SUSAN MCIVER


Charlie Bernhardt returned from war-torn Europe to work in construction before turning his hand to fruit farming.


he said. “Put the political leaders on the front line if they fail to find peaceful solutions to problems.”


After returning to civilian life, he worked in construction to earn money to buy his first orchard in 1949. Eventually, he owned 40 acres located “in the four corners of Summerland,” which were planted in cherries, apricots, peaches, pears and apples.


“I gradually replanted and I provided steady employment for people,” he said. Bernhardt recalled being told he was crazy to buy orchard land.


“But I was able to retire comfortably when I sold my orchards in the mid- 1980s. I could help my kids get started and travel with my wife,” he said. Bernhardt began active participation in the BCFGA as the Summerland delegate in the late 1950s, subsequently served on the executive from 1966 to 1973 and then as president until 1978. He was also the president of the B.C. Federation of Agriculture and on the executive of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture.


During the late 60s and early 70s there were, by some accounts, 2,750 registered members of the BCFGA who enjoyed a relatively good level of prosperity.


Today, there are approximately 550


registered members, with diverse levels of income.


As discussed by Chris Garrish in his University of Saskatchewan master’s thesis, the earlier affluence “had been slowly constructed by an industry that operated through the depths of financial turmoil, survived crises production and ultimately prospered within a rigidly structured hierarchy that shored up the viability of the individual orchard units.”


From its establishment in 1889 until the tumultuous 1970s, the BCFGA had emerged as the authoritative association which controlled the key organizations, B.C. Tree Fruits, Sun-Rype Products Ltds. and, after 1951, the B.C. Fruit Board.


Bernhardt’s service on the BCFGA executive and as president spanned the years that were to have a dramatic impact on the association and the entire fruit industry.


The intertwined concepts of farmers’ ability to control their land, which usually constituted most of their wealth, controlled fruit prices and the authority to police where growers sold their fruit were at the heart of the heated controversies of the day. All of this played out in the environment of the various provincial parties jockeying for power and the


British Columbia FRUIT GROWER • Winter 2014-15 7


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24