After 40-odd years of cutting hair, Jerry Dixon has hung up his clippers.
The community icon cut his last head of hair a few weeks ago at the Rain'er Shine Barber Shop in Sunnycrest Mall.
Dixon has been cutting once a day since 1993, when John Rainer took over the business full time.
Dixon said he has met a lot of people over the years and now was as good a time as any to settle full-time into retirement.
"It was just time," he said. "I've enjoyed the work, the people and the community. Now it's time to do other things like watching my grandson [Mitch Rainer, currently pitching at Hill College in Texas] make it to the show."
Dixon moved to the Sunshine Coast in 1960 when he bought the original barbershop in Lower Gibsons in a building across the street from the Bank of Montreal. The business moved to the mall in 1978.
"I had a good job in Vancouver. I worked in the rail yards, but in my spare time I took a barbering course," Dixon recalled. "Then I was reading the Vancouver Sun in late 1959 and I read that there was a barber shop for sale here on the Sunshine Coast. I came up here, took a look around, and the owner talked me into buying it. I liked the Coast right away and I've been here ever since."
Dixon said people played a huge role in the job, adding that he made a lot of good friends through his work.
And Dixon's level of commitment and roots to the community run much deeper than cutting hair. He coached, played and umpired baseball for close to 30 years and was instrumental in starting the youth baseball league. He served four terms on town council and was an active member of the Gibsons Fire Department for more than 20 years.
"I've seen a lot of changes, met lots of people and that's been wonderful. It's been very rewarding," Dixon said.
