Remembering our roots ~ Bruce and June McArthur

By John Godsman Times Contributor

Bruce McArthur’s great-great grandparents were born around 1827 in Glasgow, Scotland and his great-grandparents moved to Iowa, where his grandmother was born in 1889 and his grandfather in 1891. From Iowa, they moved to California, then Gleichen, to homestead in 1907. Bruce’s parents, Don and Margie, farmed until 1974, then moved to Strathmore. They are featured in Volume 1 of Remembering Our Roots on page 166.
Bruce was born in Calgary in 1948 and has two sisters, Sandra and Marilyn. They attended the school at Cluny through Grade 12. Bruce then attended Olds College and farmed with his parents.
June McArthur (nee Manning) was born in Saskatchewan in 1953. She has one brother, Gary. Her family lived at Aneroid, Sask. before moving to Bassano. Her parents, Gordon and Loie Manning, owned the Bassano Times newspaper. She attended school in Bassano through Grade 12, went to business college in Calgary, and returned to Bassano to work with her parents at the newspaper.
Bruce and June were married in Bassano in 1974. They have three children, Amy, Brad and John, and six grandchildren (sixth generation on the family farm). In 2007, the McArthur farm was acknowledged by the province of Alberta for having been in operation for 100 years.
Both Bruce and June have been very active in the Cluny and Gleichen communities. Bruce coached and managed minor hockey, and was a volunteer with the Cluny Fire Department, Cluny Lions Club, Gleichen and District Agricultural Society, and the arena and recreational boards. June has been involved in the figure skating club, arena board, Fall Fair committee and the Gleichen-Cluny United Fund.
The biggest changes in this community, they say, have been the closing of the local grain elevators and the centralization of the schools.