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6 GORMAN GROUP EDGE / ISSUE #1
Our Gorman
HISTORY
The Okanagan Valley was a very different place 70 years ago. Orchards and small farms were scattered about
the area now known as West Kelowna. The town centre was small; just a gas station, a general store, a cold
storage unit, a post office, and a few more buildings clustered beside Highway 97.
Against the backdrop of Lake Okanagan shimmering in the summer sun, John and Ross Gorman planted
orchards, looking forward to bountiful crops to feed their growing families. However, Mother Nature can be
fickle, and the winter of 1949/50 was particularly harsh. The young fruit trees planted by the two brothers
suffered severe losses and their orchards were decimated. Ross and John had never been the type to sit back
and wait for help. One cold windy evening, John and Ross, with their wives, Edith and Eunice, sat around
Ross’s kitchen table and put together a plan. Little did they know, this was the start of a business that would
span 70 years and provide employment for thousands of people.
