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Arlene Gaal, down via the years. A devoted investigator.
February 22, 1937 – November 7, 2021
Attributable to many years of inquiries of British Columbia’s native Lake Monster sightings, the world’s foremost Ogopogo researcher was Arlene Gaal. We’re unhappy to be taught from her daughter Laurie that Gaal, at 84, has handed away on November 7, 2021, on the Solar Pointe Village in Kelowna, British Columbia.
Arlene Gaal was born in 1937 and raised in a small coal mining city of Michel, in southeastern British Columbia. In 1968, Arlene and her husband Joe, together with their three youngsters moved to Kelowna, situated in Central British Columbia on the pristine shores of Lake Okanagan, the reported dwelling of the well-known Ogopogo, a Lake Monster. Arlene made her residing as a trainer and likewise wrote a weekly column for the Kelowna Day by day Courier.
She quickly took curiosity within the story of Ogopogo and started monitoring the various sightings of the creature. It was not lengthy earlier than Arlene turned the reporting station for sightings of Ogopogo and because the years progressed the info collected would simply fill a reasonably sized room. She additionally made sure that any movie, video, or nonetheless images had been preserved, together with the so-called Folden Movie, which she bought in 1976.
Arlene Gaal served because the on-site marketing consultant for Alan Landsburg Manufacturing, In Search of Ogopogo and for 2 productions shot on Lake Okanagan by Tokyo’s Nippon Tv in 1990 and 1991. It was throughout the filming of the Nippon Tv packages that helicopters and submersibles looked for the creature and video footage and sonar readings captured photographs that seemed to be of Ogopogo. Gaal additionally appeared in a number of TV reveals similar to Entrance Web page Problem, Unsolved Mysteries, and Vacation spot Reality to call just a few.
She was predeceased by her mother and father Alexander and Margaret Walker; her husband Joseph Gaal; her son Joey, who died in Thailand in 1989; and her brother-in-law James Johnston. She is survived by son David and his spouse Miyuki who dwell in Saiki Metropolis, Japan; her daughter Laurie; and grandsons Jordan, Colton and Joshua (Breanna); in addition to her sister Bernice; brother Ken (Elynda); and several other cousins, nieces, and nephews. No funeral service, at her request, will likely be held, however a small household Celebration of Life will likely be held at a later date.
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Gaal was the writer of
Ogopogo: The True Story of the Okanagan Lake Million Greenback Monster (1955);
Beneath the Depths (1976); and
In Search of Ogopogo: Sacred Creature of the Okanagan Waters (2001).
Arlene Gaal was a frequent interviewee on cryptozoology documentaries and actuality tv packages, together with:
Self (6 credit)
2020
2009
Self – Historian and Ogopogo Archivist
2005
1990
Arlene Gaal additionally was a Lifetime Honorary Member of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Membership.
On November 18, 2021, within the Kelowna BC The Day by day Courier, Ron Seymour wrote the next obituary:
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Arlene Gaal, an avid chronicler of Rutland occasions who was additionally an knowledgeable on the legend of Ogopogo, has died.
She was 84.
“She had Rutland in her coronary heart,” Al Horning, a former MP, MLA and metropolis councillor, mentioned Thursday.
“Arlene was very educated about Rutland and all the time fascinated about telling Rutland’s tales,” Horning mentioned, referring to Gaal’s lengthy involvement with a newspaper that targeted on the group.
Gaal and her late husband Joe moved to Rutland in 1968 when the realm was outdoors the Metropolis of Kelowna’s boundaries.
She was an elementary schoolteacher who additionally loved writing, contributing to the Rutland Weekly newspaper, educating artistic writing, and serving as president of the Okanagan Writer’s Affiliation.
She additionally developed an curiosity in Ogopogo, the legendary denizen of Okanagan Lake.
She wrote three books on Ogopogo, was usually contacted by individuals who believed they’d seen the creature, and was consulted by many tv crews that got here to Kelowna from around the globe to organize reveals on the elusive serpent.
Gaal’s personal ideas on the existence of Ogopogo various from the light-hearted to the honest.
Requested for her opinion of a sensational video of one thing uncommon within the lake, filmed by a automobile salesman in 1989, Gaal mentioned: “There is no such thing as a doubt in my thoughts we’re taking a look at an animal that hasn’t been labeled but.”
However after just a few years with none Ogopogo sightings, Gaal prompt in 2013 the lake was getting too noisy for its liking: “I can perceive with all of the boats and heavy visitors on the lake. You and I’d go away and conceal too.”
For a few years, Gaal had a severe and private devotion to discovering out what led to the demise of her son Joey, knowledgeable information photographer, in Thailand in 1989.
Authorities mentioned he drowned however Gaal believed he was murdered. Her investigations ultimately prompted the RCMP to ask their Thai colleagues to re-examine the case however no costs had been ever laid.
“Arlene was keen about attending to the reality about what occurred to Joey,” mentioned Horning, who in his capability as MP for Kelowna within the late ’80s and early ’90s, helped Gaal in her analysis.
In 2014, Gaal printed a 240-page e book on her son’s demise.
“I do know lots of people may say, ‘Oh, you’re persevering with on with a misplaced trigger’, and ‘Simply let it go’,” Gaal mentioned in an interview on the time.
“However this occurred to me, to our household, to not them,” she mentioned. “Why wouldn’t I do what I may to attempt to see Joey’s killer dropped at justice?”
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Arlene Gaal, 2009, taken by Paul Cropper, and shared with me.
Arlene Gaal holds her second e book concerning the legendary lake monster Ogopogo amongst dozens of newspaper clippings in 2000.
PHOTO BY DESMOND MURRAY /Province
Laurie and Arlene Gaal, 2019
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Personally, I’ll deeply miss Arlene, who has been a correspondent of mine because the Nineteen Sixties. She was beneficiant in her sharing of her Ogopogo insights. Goodbye Arlene. ~ Loren Coleman
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