When Elm Creek’s Scotty Sisson made up his mind to do something, he did it with absolute dedication and commitment. From joining the war effort and learning to fly, to building a golf course and years of community service, Scotty accomplished it all.
Born Arnold Bruce Sisson in 1921 in the Wingham district during the Depression, he learned early about community spirit — a lesson he carried with him and passed along to many throughout his lifetime.
Scotty signed up for the armed forces in 1939 after listening to Walter Winchell’s radio broadcasts about the Nazis’ cruelty against mankind. He once said: “We had to be part of it. We weren’t fighting an immoral people… we were fighting a terrible act. An injustice.” After training across Canada, he was called to duty in 1941 by the RCAF, fulfilling a childhood dream of flying.
He requested to be trained as a night fighter and subsequently flew the legendary Mosquito aircraft, but his crew was shot down over France in 1944. After parachuting safely, they were captured by the Gestapo and sent to POW camps, where he played hockey against German teams until liberation in 1945.
Upon his release, Scotty married Margaret (Peggy) Wood, whom he had met while stationed in Scotland, and they returned to Wingham. He received a diploma in agriculture, farmed and began selling farm equipment, eventually opening Sisson Service Centre at the corner of Highways 13 and 2.
Away from work, Scotty was instrumental in starting hockey in Elm Creek, beginning a long tenure of coaching — many years on an open-air ice surface. Among so many others, he was there for his boys and grandsons until his retirement in 1998. At times, he coached every Elm Creek team, starting at 4:30 p.m. after school and ending… well, when the kids went home.
“My favourite part of the game is the teaching part of it,” he said at the 1998 annual awards night. “Discipline was important. I never taught kids to play dirty.” That night he received a Lifetime Recognition Award and the Dr. Fern Letain Award for Outstanding Contributions to Minor Hockey in Pembina Valley.
He and Peggy also loved dancing. Beginning in the 1970s, they instructed and performed old-time, square and round dancing for many years across southern Manitoba and Winnipeg. When the community hall was built in 1995, he lobbied to have the dance floor large enough for square dancers.
Yet the couple’s greatest achievement was Scotswood Links Golf Course. For 10 years, the Sissons had considered going into the golf business since their grounds were scenic and close to nature. With no golf experience, the family designed, financed and developed the course, turning 50 acres into what Scotty called “a people’s golf course.” He laughed: “When we started, we never thought of the financial thing at all… then we found out some people actually make money on golf courses.”
With 200 acres left over, the thought of expansion grew. “Enough to make 27 more holes if we wanted to,” he said then. That too happened, with the grand opening of the back nine coinciding with the 10th anniversary in 1998. At the same time, the “pushing 80” Scotty announced that his sons Bruce, John and Bill would take over.
Now out of the golf business, Scotty turned to other ventures such as making maple syrup. In 2000, his third year at it, he tapped 140 trees on his property and collected hundreds of litres of sap. “It is time-consuming, as it takes about 40 litres of sap to yield a single litre of syrup,” Scotty told a reporter then. “The production is expensive too, especially considering I give almost all of it to charity.”
Charity, indeed, is the best word to describe what Scotty gave to Elm Creek and the surrounding community. He died in November 2015. Peggy had predeceased him in September of that year.
Tributes
Bob Miller: “During a conversation, reminiscing and speaking of his devotion, Scotty’s response to me was, ‘Yes, we had many good players, good times and hockey games, but I have got equally as much pleasure watching these guys grow up and develop into good people, good husbands, good fathers and good citizens.’”
Alice Miller: “Scotty was very influential to the kids. School groups were shown how maple syrup and taffy were made during the season. Every November he would relate his war experiences to classes, which really made it real for the students. He employed many boys starting their mechanics careers by teaching them and giving them an opportunity to use their skills.”
Ed Tkachyk: “Scotty was a passive coach — never high or never low. Never did I see him kick a garbage can in a loss or party because of a championship win. The only time I saw him upset was when I caught his son John in the lip with a puck… he was sure mad with me. He was always about equal ice time, which is why he had seven locals in junior hockey in one year and 16 in a span of three years. Not to be duplicated, I’m sure!”
