A two-term governor of the Bank of Canada, Gerald Bouey, who spent his childhood in Trossachs and area, died Friday in Ottawa at the age of 83.

Bouey was born in April, 1920 in the now-extinct village of Axford, near Trossachs. His family moved to Trossachs when he was about nine years old, where he attended school and graduated at the age of 16.

Bouey began his banking career soon after, in a bank in Ogema in 1936. In an extraordinary speech to the RM of Brokenshell annual ratepayers meeting in Trossachs in April, 1980, he told the audience he applied for the job even though had never been inside a bank.

"In those days, few of us had occasion to visit a bank," he said, referring to the hardships of the depression era in southeast Saskatchewan. But he thought he would be a better banker than a farmer.

Bouey, whose visit to Trossachs occurred just as he was beginning his second, seven-year term as governor, said banking was different in those early days. "While we didn't worry much about the possibility of a hold-up, we were terrified that someone might actually try to borrow some of the bank's money."

Bouey's parents were Alexander and Inez (Hathaway). The family had five children; two of whom, Dorothy and Bethel, survive Gerald.

Alex, as he was known in the community, was a farmer, then elevator operator and Co-op agent in Trossachs, and was made a lay minister in the United Church, after many years of service. He pastored in Creelman before retiring to Regina.

Alex was a wonderful man, said Weyburn resident Stella Nelson Tuesday. "He was always helping others."

She remembers Gerald as a shy, very quiet and clever child when they attended school for three years in the rural Coral School.

"Alex used to wonder if he would ever live to see Gerald's name on the dollar bills," said Nelson. He did.

In a 1981 story in the Western Producer magazine, Bouey said he took an all-night bus ride to Saskatoon in 1941 to join the air force. After the war, he married Anne Ferguson of Moosomin and went to Queen's University.

From there, he found a job in 1948 at the Bank of Canada, and worked his way up to the top job.

Weyburn farmer Norm Flaten remembers meeting Bouey at the Brokenshell ratepayers' meeting.

"He was very impressive," said Flaten Tuesday. "He was not an overbearing sort of person. He didn't place much emphasis on being governor, although he did talk about monetary policy at the meeting."

A Globe and Mail obituary Tuesday noted that Bouey was governor "for 14 of the most disastrous years in Canadian financial history. During his time on the job, from February of 1973 to February of 1987, wage-and-price controls ruled the country, the dollar took a dive from par to below 70 cents while, in the meantime, interest rates spiked to their highest levels in memory."

He was also frugal, said the obituary. "He drove a Buick Skylark because he described himself as 'a bit of a tightwad' who hated to waste money on gasoline."

Bouey's fight against inflation was both criticized and applauded.

A cairn was dedicated to Bouey in Trossachs in 1981.

At the dedication ceremony, guest speaker Robert Kohaly said Bouey learned the value of family life in his small community; a respect for nature, a spirit of community, and that you pay your own way. Bouey also learned respect for the law and that it's possible in a small community to dream and have those dreams come true, said Kohaly.

"So Trossachs has contributed much more than just a pile of stones with a misspelled place name on the front."

Bouey was named a companion of the Order of Canada in 1987 for his role in combating inflation and stabilizing the Canadian economy.