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CROSS EXAMINED A lifelong passion for the law Saskatoon law office every day. BY JODY CASON only had one thought in my mind — that I wanted to be a lawyer. A s a young boy growing up in Unity, Sask., Tom Gauley knew exactly what direction he want- ed his life to take: "I decades later, with a long list of acco- lades and achievements to his name, including the Order of Canada, he still goes to the office every day. He has no plans to step down from the helm of McDougall Gauley anytime soon. "Not as long as I have my health — health is everything and I'm thankful for it. When you consider I couldn't pass the medi- " Eight At 90, Tom Gauley still goes into his In his career, Tom Gauley has served as principal for 50 articling students. cal when I tried to enlist in the army. In retrospect, thank goodness, I probably wouldn't be here. ties afforded him in a very bleak time. The effects of the Depression and the Second World War were keenly felt in his community, which lost half its popula- tion. "They were difficult times. My par- ents made a lot of sacrifices for me to get an education," he says. Tom commenced classes at the University of Saskatchewan in 1939, and worked hard at both his studies and his various jobs to make his way through school. He dug gardens for two dollars a plot, worked Saturdays at Gauley is grateful for the opportuni- " 24 N O VEMBER / D ECEMBER 2012 www.CANADIAN Lawyermag.com the OK Market, and during the summer returned home to help on the farm and work in the local hospital. "The Unity Union Hospital was a basement and two storeys but they ran out of money so that the operating room was on the top floor. So that meant that when they finished, you had to carry the patient down a flight of stairs on a stretcher. Oh God, I hated it!" Tom also earned a dollar every Sunday for playing in the Arena band. "I had a B Flat ebony clarinet. This is a sad story: I sold it to buy a suit of clothes so I could graduate!" In 1943, in his new suit, he joined McKercher McCool & Francis to article grAnt romAnciA