Lawrence Vernon John (Vern) Small, elder son of pioneers, father of five, and Gull Lake's most highly decorated Second World War veteran, died at the Gull Lake Special Care home on Dec. 1. He was 93.

He leaves a clan of 38: children Doug (Brenda), Ottawa; Penny (Wayne), Sylvan Lake; Steve (Shannon), Gull Lake; Sherry (Colin), Vancouver, Fred (Jan), Hafford; grandchildren Stephanie (Matthew), Jennifer (Paul), Ric, (Roz), Ron (Susan), Cody (Kim), Shane, Tessa (Drew), Luke, Jeff, Sophie, Rachel, Rebecca; and great-grandchildren Daisy, Nettie, Jacob, Elizabeth, Parker, Pacey, Piper, Rhion, Rayce and Tyrus.

He is predeceased by Nettie (Badge), his wife of nearly 63 years, his sisters Annie and Susie, and his parents Jack, a 1906 homesteader, and Viola, the district's first rural schoolteacher. He is survived by his brother Dwight, 90.

During the Second World War, Vern was an accomplished Royal Canadian Air Force navigator, a flight lieutenant on a Lancaster bomber crew that flew 52 trips, two full tours of duty, the second tour as master bombers in the renowned Pathfinder Force.

He was one of 4,018 Canadian airmen awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross, and one of only 213 to win an accompanying Bar, the equivalent of a second DFC.

After the war, he took over the family homestead, gradually turning over the fam to Steve and Shannon after they returned from careers elswhere in 1978.

He commuted 12 miles southeast to the farm from Gull Lake, where he and Nettie were involved in a host of activities and organizations, she mainly as a music teacher, church organist and accompanist, he as a school unit trustee, president of the Home and School Association, an elder of Knox United Church (24 years), an Emergency Measures Organization director (10 years), secretary-treasurer of the skating rink committee (12 years), and uncounted years at the Curling Club where (when he wasn't on the ice) he held various offices including president and secretary-treasurer, and the Legion, where he served variously as president, treasurer, sergeant-at-arms and zone commander.

In 2011, Vern published 'It Took All Kinds,' an anecdotal wartime memoir that paid particular tribute to his pilot Duncan McNaughton (winner of an Olympic gold medal for high jumping at the 1932 games in Los Angeles) and the rest of a crew that remained lifelong friends. Copies are available at the Gull Lake branch of the Chinook Regional Library.

Donations in his memory can be sent to the Gull Lake branch of the Royal Canadian Legion, the Gull Lake Curling Club, or the Know United Church in Gull Lake.