Respected Penticton businessman will be greatly missed.

PENTICTON — A well known and respected businessman, George Little, passed away Sunday due to an ongoing illness.

“He was a person you didn’t forget. We’re definitely going to miss him,” said colleague Frank Conci.

Little, 69, owned his company G. Little Electric Ltd., and was very involved in the community. He moved to Penticton in 1971 and started the company in 1985, after working for Cooper and Gibbard Electric Ltd., as an electrician, estimator and manager.

Little expanded his business from his electrical services background, to alarms and heating and air conditioning. He was involved in several other committees and city groups over the years, including the Electrical Safety Advisory Board of British Columbia, and the Southern Interior Construction Association.

Until this year he was president of the Penticton Industrial Directors Association, then sat as past-president.

He was a very big part of the association, a group of industrial businesspersons who work to improve physical and arising issues in the city’s industrial area.

“He was a very passionate person…an energetic individual,” said Conci, the association’s president.

Little had a strong sense of responsibility in the city, he said.

“He was respected by everyone in the community,” said Ken MacDermott, a 17-year employee with G. Little Group.

“They may not have liked him, but they all respected him,” he said.

The company Little built will continue on through the guidance of MacDermott and other former employees, including Little’s wife. MacDermott said they will continue to deliver work of the high standards that Little set over the years.

Little is survived by wife, two daughters, and grandson.

To contact the reporter for this story, email Meaghan Archer at marcher@infotelnews.ca or call 250-488-3065. To contact the editor, email mjones@infotelnews.ca or call 250-718-2724.