The City of Moose Jaw lost two significant members of the community last week, and Mayor Clive Tolley paid tribute to them during a city council meeting on Monday.  

Former Mayor Stan Montgomery passed away last Wednesday at the age of 87 and Moose Jaw hockey legend Clark Gillies passed away on Friday at 67.  

Tolley knew both men very well. Montgomery served as mayor from 1989 to 1991. This was the same time that Tolley spent as a city councillor.  

“He's a pillar of our community. I sat beside him at Council meetings and he was a true gentleman and he served the City of Moose Jaw with all his heart,” Tolley said. 

Tolley added that Montgomery coached his younger brother to a Little League championship and Montgomery was a championship curler himself. He would go on to coach his son Rod, who is now the Moose Jaw Fire Chief, to the Canadian Schoolboys National Curling Championship.  

Although Gillies was younger than Tolley, they both grew up in the same neighbourhood and they were good friends.  

“Clark Gillies grew up about a block and a half from me, and he was three years younger than I was. But we were pals along with all the kids in the neighbourhood, and we played a lot of hockey on an outdoor rink. We called it Ross Rink because it was next to Ross School. It was technically the Hillcrest Outdoor Rink,” Tolley said.  

Tolley said Gillies’ nephew Rob Trumbley would become a well-known “tough guy” for the Moose Jaw Warriors and Trumbley always said that Gillies was his hero and his mentor.  

To Tolley, the loss of Montgomery and Gillies has been difficult for, not only himself but the community as a whole.  

“It's really a tough thing to lose someone as important to the community as Stan and then to lose somebody as young and maybe our best or one of our top athletes out of the City of Moose Jaw, Clark Gillies. It's just difficult to deal with and I've personally had a tough time dealing with it,” the mayor said. 

You can hear Mayor Clive Tolley’s comments about the passing of Stan Montgomery and Clark Gillies below: