Donald Best, 92, passed away on Fogo Island, Newfoundland and Labrador — a community he spent the entirety of his life bettering.
A born and raised Fogo Islander, Best spent most of his life as a fish harvester. He began working alongside his father, Thomas, at the age of 13, which conditioned Best to a life where hard work was highly valued.
“His whole life was work,” said Glen Best, Donald Best’s son. “He didn’t have hobbies like playing cards or sports. Dad’s lifetime hobby was work, and his lifetime goal was service to his community.”
And serve his community, he did. Faced with the prospect of resettlement of their community in 1967 during the government of N.L. Premier Joey Smallwood, Fogo Island and its inhabitants were left with only two options — find a way to make their community viable or leave their homes. The residents of Fogo, including Best, got to work in forming the Fogo Island Co-operative Society Limited, a community-based enterprise which operates a fishing fleet and processing plants on the island.
“Dad was one of the founding members of that. He was the vice chairman of the first three boards,” said Best.
“He was always involved in the co-op. Dad was Chairman of the Fogo Island Co-op for a number of years, Vice Chairman and he served on the Canadian Saltfish Corporation board.”
Beyond his contribution to the Fogo Island Co-op, Best served as a town councilor since 1958 and mayor in 1967. He was also a member of the Canadian Coast Guard Auxiliary, the Fogo Island Improvement Committee and the Fogo-based charity Shorefast. In recognition for his leadership in steering the struggling outport towards the success it sees today, Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUN) awarded Best with an honorary Doctor of Laws in 2011.
“In the 1960s, the saltfish industry, the economic mainstay of most outports, was in its last days — and so were those outports — for the government, seeing them as constant and unproductive drawers of funds, had set about consolidating them in the process known as resettlement,” said the MUN press release. “Many capitulated, closed and moved. Fogo did not and part of the reason was the resistance of people like Don Best. A fisherman, Mr. Best was one of the founders of the Fogo Island Improvement Committee which bred the Fogo Island Co-operative which today is the largest employer on the island.”
Outside of the contributions he made to his community, Best was a successful fishing enterprise owner. The work he did from the age of 13, according to his son, set him and his family up for many generations of success.
“Dad started in a small trap boat and worked his way up to a 35-foot boat in the 1980s. He got into a 45-foot longliner and moved offshore a bit farther,” said Best. “In the late 1980s, my brother Jerry and myself graduated from school. By 1989, dad winded down his career and we took over from him. Dad started the foundation of the fishing business that me and my brother run now — four boats, 17 guys and all our product is landed here on Fogo Island for the Fogo Island Co-op — we attribute all that to the groundwork dad did and the foundation he built of our fishing operation.”
Not one to sit still, Best set his mind to raising money for St. Andrew’s Anglican Church after his retirement. The church, in need of repair, benefitted greatly from Best’s work, reportedly raising over $100,000 for repairs and maintenance to the building. Up to his last days, the wellbeing of his family, friends and community were always at the forefront of his mind.
“On the island, dad was always respected as being a solid and loyal co-op member. Fogo Island Co-op and Fogo Island are synonymous — without one, there would not be the other,” said Best.
