“Gerard bought the classy, mint-conditioned Overland in St. Louis years ago and we are so proud to display this treasure in our museum. It is the forerunner to the Jeep.”
Gerry Levasseur, with son Gerard and daughter Lisa, at the wheel of the 1918 Willy Overland convertible his family last week presented to the Stony Plain and Parkland’s Pioneer Museum. PHOTO BY SUPPLIED
Article content
The family has one of the best collections of antique cars in Alberta and last week donated a 1918 Willys-Overland vehicle to Stony Plain and Parkland’s Pioneer Museum.
“History and our heritage can show us where we came from and where our future might lie,” said Gerard Levasseur, who represented his parents Gerry and Helga Levasseur and sister Lisa Levasseur at a protocol-limited ceremony.
Museum president Clifford Goerz, whose antique-loving father Henry Goerz helped create the museum 27 years ago, says the institution has over the years been handed 10,000 antiques or more.
“Gerard bought the classy, mint-conditioned Overland in St. Louis years ago and we are so proud to display this treasure in our museum. It is the forerunner to the Jeep.”
In a previous column, I mentioned Gerry Levasseur could not wait to leave school and was trading bicycles aged 14 or 15. He went on to create a business that today employs some 500 people at his Sunrise International’s 10 hotels, his automotive-RV companies and his construction businesses.
Gerard has this year taken over the automotive companies and Lisa the hotels, but both say their dad is still offering highly creative ideas.
“Dad was always a car enthusiast,” says Gerard. “He passed on this love to me and then I handed it on to my kids. Dad still has some 10 vintage cars, including a Ferrari and a Lotus.
“This year in June, Lisa and I gave him a classic Buick 1953 convertible for his 88th birthday.”
The family, no strangers to helping others, also in June this year launched a well-financed Levasseur Community Trust.
“The fund is to honour our father and mother Helga,” says Lisa. “This way we know our father’s legacy will continue for generations and help communities dad has always supported.”
My cycling friends and I became aware of Levasseur largesse in 2014 when, pedalling back from Haida Gwaii with a totem pole we planned to give to the Stollery Children’s Hospital, we stayed two nights at the family’s Terracana Ranch Resort west of Jasper Park.
Gerry Levasseur, who had Indigenous groups and a band entertain us, would accept no payment for our party of about 40 and then later housed our large totem pole for the winter months prior to installation.
Photo of Journal columnist Nick Lees at the wheel of the 1918 Willy Overland vehicle that was used to create a label for a bottle of Argentine malbec Riverbend Vines Wine Merchants are selling to support CASA, a charity helping families that have a child with a mental health issue. Stony Plain’s Levasseur family presented the car to the Stony Plain and Parkland’s Pioneer Museum last week. PHOTO BY SUPPLIED