Stu Gifford’s first athletic passion was basketball and, with his hometown New Westminster Adanacs, he won the 1929 Canadian Basketball Championships. His other sport of choice, lacrosse, took him to the 1932 Summer Olympics, where the team from the United States defeated the Canadian squad two games to one in a demonstration event. Gifford continued to compete nationally in lacrosse until the late 1930s, when he hung up his stick to manage the Adanacs, although he maintained some involvement in lacrosse at the administrative level. Outside of sports he was a police officer for 10 years before joining his father’s company as a salesman, eventually working his way up the ladder until he became a co-founder and executive of the deep sea shipping business Overseas Transport Company. In the meantime he began a 17-year involvement with the New Westminster government that culminated in his election as mayor in 1964. He served until 1969 and retired from his involvement with Overseas Transport in 1971.