True love spurs donation

Photo: Contributed

Two soulmates, who raised their family and grew their business in Penticton, have decided to donate $30,000 to the South Okanagan Similkameen Medical Foundation to help provide medical equipment for the Penticton Regional Hospital expansion.

Adam Baumann, of A. Baumann Masonry Ltd., first laid eyes on his future bride Jean at the old Swedish Hall in Vancouver in December 1953.

"I thought she was the best looking girl in the whole place," he recalled. "I kept asking her to dance all night long."

Their love blossomed, and they married in June 1954. Both fell in love with the South Okanagan while on holidays, and decided to move to Penticton in October 1954. 

They immediately opened A. Baumann Masonry Ltd., with Jean working as the accountant and Adam taking care of the masonry. The company quickly grew, and they opened the Okanagan's first concrete block plant on Camrose Street, now OK Ready Mix,. 

Adam constructed several Penticton motels during the 1950s, and opened Penticton's original mini-golf course on Riverside Drive in 1958, a new and popular attraction at the time which ruffled some neighbours' feathers.

"I got a letter from City Hall saying we were in contravention of the Lord’s Day Act,” he said. 

Adam and his partners also developed the Sage Mesa subdivision, St. Andrews Golf Course, OK Mini Storage and what is now Penticton Self-Storage. 

He is most proud of being involved in developing and designing the condo building at 86 Lakeshore Drive in the 1980s.

A book about his life, including his time as a teenage soldier serving in the Second World War, will be published in the coming weeks. The new patient care tower which the Baumann's $30,000 contribution will benefit is expected to open in April 2019.