'He could tell stories like it was yesterday': The life of Eddie 'E.' Gruben

Many know Eddie Gruben for his successful contracting company, based in Tuktoyatuk, N.W.T., where Gruben spent most of his life.

"He was a really well-rounded, good guy. A-one," his grandson Sean Lundrigan laughs, recalling how his grandfather used to refer to himself.

Gruben, also known as "Daduck", passed away on June 20 at the age of 96. He had 12 children, 41 grandchildren, 90 great-grandchildren and 14 great-great-grandchildren.

And from the stories told to many of them, success or "A-one" may have been an unspoken rule throughout Gruben's life.

'Takiniatok' means 'she was gone'

Gruben was born in 1919 in Kitigaaryuit, N.W.T., an area at the mouth of the East Channel of the Mackenzie River. It's just five square kilometres big.

Gruben was the sixth child of his German father, John Gruben and Inuvialuit mother, Mary Talromek, though he didn't stay with his birth family for long.

"Three days after his birth, Dad was wrapped in a deer skin blanket and taken with a dog team to Tuktoyaktuk to be adopted," wrote his youngest daughter, Maureen Gruben, in her father's eulogy.

Though he was adopted into a loving family, life didn't start off very easy for the young Gruben. At two years old, his father died after getting lost during a hunting trip. He was only 16 kilometres from Tuktoyatuk.

Throughout the years following his father's death, Gruben, his adopted brother Diamond and his mother struggled to find food for themselves, and so Gruben learned to hunt and trap very early in his life. When he was five, the three of them walked nearly three days to find fish for themselves and their three starving dogs.

Gruben's mother passed away early in his life as well, when he was nine. In 1928, the "big epic flu" hit Aklavik, N.W.T. One night when Gruben and his family were muskrat hunting, Gruben turned to wake his mother, but couldn't. 

"Takiniatok," his brother Diamond said to him. 

E. Gruben: The hunter and trapper

Throughout his pre-teen and teenage years, Gruben became one of the best hunters and trappers in the Western Arctic.

After his mother's passing, Gruben wanted to find ways to help those in need. Communities relied on him for hunting, trapping and hauling supplies with his dog-sled team.

"He knew he didn't want [anyone] to go through what he did when he was a young boy," Lundrigan said. 

Lundrigan remembers a time when his grandfather helped him.

Gruben took Lundrigan and his cousin out trapping when they were just 11 years old. Lundrigan says his grandfather "wanted to show us the lifestyle and how he came to be who he was."

Each of them set a trap the way they knew how (this was the first time for Lundrigan and his cousin) and slept the night in a tent at -30 C.

When they woke the next morning, Lundrigan recalls one trap's bait was gone, another trap was completely gone, while his grandfather's trap had caught a white fox.

Lundrigan says Gruben wanted to show them how "effortless" it could be to make a trap look nearly invisible underneath a bed of snow.

"That's how he taught us," Lundrigan said, adding that they always learned from trying something for themselves first and then fixing their simple mistakes.

Over the years, some of Gruben's largest catches in one go included 32 whales with his boat "Tootsie"; 18 caribou with 19 bullets (one was wounded); and more than 1,300 foxes in 1951 alone.

"He used to say, because he helped so many people, the animals just came to him. Because he gave and he gave and he gave," said his daughter Maureen.

Becoming E. Gruben's Transport Ltd.

After settling in with a family and marrying his wife Alice in 1940, Gruben decided to grow his business. 

He bought his own loader and bulldozer in 1957. E. Gruben's Transport Ltd. started out by hauling gravel to new schools and buildings being built near Tuktoyaktuk.

"Be prepared because this place is going to grow a lot in the coming years," said Pierre Trudeau to Gruben while on a visit to the community in the 1960s. 

Soon, E. Gruben Transport Ltd. grew to be one of the biggest contracting companies in the region. One of its recent projects includes the first phase of the Inuvik-Tuk Highway.

"What brought him pride was that he was able to employ so many local people," Maureen said.

'He was really sharp'

After Gruben's wife Alice died in 1987, Sue Keevik joined his side to take care of him. This was something Alice had arranged before her passing, to make sure people were looking after someone who rarely thought of himself.

Lundrigan says his grandfather's passing felt sudden even though they "knew his time was coming."

"Just because of the way his mind was. He was really sharp," Lundrigan says.

Maureen says her father was like that as long as she can remember.

"He had an amazing memory. He could remember from the time he was 2 years old to the time he passed away," she said. "He never lost his memory. He can still tell stories like it was yesterday. He can account for every year of his life."