Collection - Gordon Slade photograph collection

Gordon C. Slade (1940- ), civil servant and heritage advocate, was born at North Harbour, Placentia Bay, Newfoundland, son of Elsie (Burton) and Donald Slade. He married Agnes Parsons and they have two children, Paula and Janet.

Slade was educated at Memorial University of Newfoundland and the University of Alberta. He commenced his career as a school teacher, and, in 1961, began work as a civil servant with the Government of Canada. In 1975, he left the federal civil service and was appointed Newfoundland Deputy Minister of Fisheries. He returned to the federal civil service in 1982 and worked as the Federal-Provincial Economic Development Co-ordinator with the Ministry of State for Economic and Regional Development; later he became vice-president of the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA). In 1995 Slade retired from his position with ACOA and became executive director of the International Center at Memorial University. In 2002 he was appointed executive director of One Ocean, an agency responsible for facilitating co-operative relationships between the province's fisheries and petroleum industries.

In 1988 Slade established a trust foundation, The Battle Harbour Historic Trust, whose mandate was to promote the restoration of historic buildings in Battle Harbour, a former mercantile and fishery station in southern Labrador. Battle Harbour was subsequently declared a National Historic District by the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada. In 2002 Slade was awarded a Royal Canadian Geographical Society gold medal for his leadership role in the restoration of Battle Harbour.

Slade is a member of the Sir William Coaker Heritage Foundation, chair of the advisory committee on the Ryan Premises National Historical Site (Bonavista) and the advisory committee at the Red Bay National Historic Site, Labrador. He is a governor of the Atlantic Provinces Economic Council.