Henry Passes Away
1960 Saturday August 29, 1960 Regina Leader Post
Former Mayor of Regina Dies
Henry Black, former mayor and prominent city real estate man and builder,
whose busy civic minded career in Regina spanned 57 years died in Hospital
Saturday. He was 85 and had been ill for several weeks. Mr. Black, who
still retained an office in the Black Block which he built and owned served
as an alderman in 1915, 1916, 1917 and 1923 and 1924 and as mayor in 1918
and 1919. Owner of a number of apartment blocks, he also served the hospital
board in 1918, 1919 and 1923 and 1924 and on the high school and collegiate
boards during the years from 1930 to 1938. In addition, he was Chairman
of the Saskatchewan relief Commission from 1931 to 1934, the most trying
years of the depression. ‘We spent about $30 million, got some praise,
and a lot of criticism,’ Mr. Black once said, summing up his service with
the commission. In 1935 he was awarded the CBE in recognition of his service
with the relief organization. Mr. Black, who stressed economy and care
in civic administration carried these principles into the education field.
The average cost of maintaining a student in Regina Collegiates in 1929
prior to his election to the school board was $135 per year, by 1936 the
figure had been lowered to $73.00 per year per student. Active at one time
in the Regina Board of Trade and many other organizations, Mr. Black was
also well known for his interest in gardening and activities in the United
Church. At the time of his death he was a member of Lakeview United Church.
Born in Grenfell County Ontario, and graduate of an eastern business college,
he worked in the retail business for one year before coming to western
Canada in 1899. He re-entered the retail trade on coming to Regina in 1903,
but found the men’s furnishings field crowded (there were three stores
in the town at that time) and turned again to contracting. Mr. Black survived
a train wreck in Medicine Hat in 1940 after being thrown forcibly against
the head of his berth to such a degree that he was unconscious for seven
hours. It was just another exciting event in a very eventful life. In the
years before Mr. Black arrived in Regina, there was only one house builder,
but in the next few years the boom came and he himself built around 150
houses - a record for those days. Eventually, he became one of the largest
property owners in the city. Mr. Black was predeceased by his wife in 1950.
He is survived by four sons, one daughter and nine grandchildren. Funeral
service will be held Wednesday at 2:00 pm in Lakeview United Church. Burial
will be in the family plot at the Regina Cemetery.
See a picture of Henry and wis wife in the early 1920s.
