January
Jan. 6 -- ALLAN MOORE. A chartered accountant by profession, Moore devoted himself to volunteering on numerous charities and organizations through the years including L'Arche, the Manitoba Opera and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, as well as serving as chairman of the United Way of Winnipeg's campaign in 1973. In 2005, he was honoured with the lifetime achievement award from the Manitoba Institute of Chartered Accountants.
Terry Hind
Jan. 9 -- TERRY HIND, 86. Baseball, football, hockey -- Hind made his mark in all three. The Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame called him one of the greatest builders in the province's sports history. He built the Winnipeg Maroons into Allan Cup champions in 1964, helped create the Manitoba Major Junior Hockey League, and was the only general manager the Winnipeg Goldeyes, in the original Northern Baseball League, ever had from 1954 to 1965. Besides the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame, Hind was inducted into the Manitoba Baseball Hall of Fame, the Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame, and the Manitoba Hockey Foundation. He was the general manager of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in 1967. Hind was also elected as a city alderman from 1962 to 1965 and was honoured with the Order of Manitoba in 2005.
Jan. 9 -- MURIEL CUTHBERT, 90. Her lifetime commitment to her Christian faith saw her go from a member of the choir to a church elder to a representative and then president of the Women's Inter-Church Council of Winnipeg.
Jan. 11 -- GUNNAR HELGASON, 84. He spent his life being a part of his community of Hnausa on Lake Winnipeg and area, going from taking over the family farm to serving as a councillor in the RM of Bifrost from 1957 to 1980 to becoming Reeve from 1980 to 1986. He was also a member of the Manitoba Municipal Board, Eastern Interlake Planning board and the Interlake Development Corp.
Jan. 12 -- DAVID CRAIG, 81. A credit manager who earlier in his life organized the Brandon Boys Basketball Association while living there. Later in life, after moving to Winnipeg, Craig indulged more in his hobby, stone sculpting, winning exhibitions and having his work displayed and sold in galleries.
Jan. 14 -- BILL BRACE, 82. He was an RCMP officer, but he made his mark in magic. He had a magic museum and police museum at his Clandeboye home. He founded the Society for Young Magicians in Canada and single-handedly opened more chapters around the world than anyone else. His friends believe he was the country's greatest magician, not just because of his ability to do magic, but also because of the countless hours he volunteered to do tricks at schools, youth centres and seniors' homes. For his volunteer work with magic, he was honoured with the Governor General's Caring Canadian Award in 2000 and inducted into the Order of Manitoba in 2002.
Jan. 15 -- JOHN THORSTEINSSON, 82. While in high school, he was able to be elected the province's premier -- at the Boys Parliament. He joined the navy during the Second World War and after the war he stayed with the Royal Canadian Navy Reserve, rising through the ranks to become commander.
Jan. 18 -- EARL BAXTER, 86. Starting as chief statistician of the Canadian Grain Commission, he rose through the ranks to become executive director, where he played a key role in the metrification of the country's grain industry, chaired several grain studies and received a meritorious service award from the Governor General.
Jan. 18 -- FRANK JONES, 91. Winnipeg dentist who treated the teeth of soldiers during the Second World War before treating hundreds of Winnipeggers from 1945 to when he retired in 1981. He also served as president of the Manitoba Dental Association.
Jan. 18 -- HEATHER MCCAINE-DAVIES, 58. With her husband, created a publishing company that helped begin the Winnipeg Sun. Later she bought Seniors Today, developing it into a twice-monthly publication, as well as creating Business People Magazine. For her contributions to the province's seniors she was honoured by the Manitoba Council on Aging with a recognition award in 1998.
Jan. 19 -- DON MITCHELL, 69. Contracting polio in his mid-teens, he became a pioneer in the disability community. He competed in the 1967 Pan Am Paraplegic Games in Winnipeg and was a triple-medallist in swimming, archery and table tennis. He also participated in swimming and wheelchair basketball in the Paraplegic Games in Montreal and was part of the wheelchair basketball team which beat the Harlem Globetrotters in an exhibition game in the Winnipeg Arena. He later served on numerous civic committees helping pioneer wheelchair-accessible stores, sidewalks and restaurants in the city as well as serving as president of the Manitoba Wheelchair Sports Association.
Jan. 20 -- GORDON FAHRNI, 90. Born to a pioneering Manitoba doctor, he graduated from medical school in 1940 and promptly took his services to war by joining the Royal Canadian Navy. While deployed on the HMS Fitzroy, the ship hit a mine and sunk, with him receiving the Distinguished Service Cross for his "great bravery, devotion to duty, leadership, and skill in actions against enemy submarines." By the end of the war he had risen to Surgeon Captain. Getting sunk didn't affect his love for boats and after the war he was designated Vice Commodore-Surgeon for the Royal Manitoba Yacht Club later receiving a life membership.
Jan. 22 -- MAX KANTOR, 88. With no formal training, but a natural ability to run, he won both the 100 and 220 yard finals while at St. John's High School, setting records not broken for 18 years. Just three years after graduation, while running for the Winnipeg Athletic Association, he struck gold in the 100 yard dash at the National Track and Field Championship. Unfortunately, injuries ended his running career, but he later began a long career in the insurance business. He was inducted into the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame in 2004.
Jan. 24 -- IRENE WEISENSEL, 87. She graduated from the Winnipeg General Hospital School of Nursing before going to Montreal to begin her career as a neurology scrub nurse. Returning to Winnipeg, she became the city's first public health nurse and helped form the local nurses' union.
Jan. 26 -- CHARLIE MALKIN, 86. A Winnipeg dentist who believed in also giving back to the community, he twice served as president of Herzlia, his synagogue, and was on the boards of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and the Reh-Fit Centre.
Jan. 29 -- DAVID JOHNSON, 59. A motorcyclist, he decided to use his vehicle to help others by creating the Ride for Sight charity in the province, as well as the Motorcycle Toy Run and the Motorcycle Blood Donor Clinic.
Jan. 29 -- MORRIS KAPLAN, 82. Horseracing was in his blood and he contributed to the sport in several ways. He was a horse owner, a breeder, a handicapper and longtime chairman of the Manitoba Horse Racing Commission, during which he worked hard to ensure the long-term viability of Assiniboia Downs.
Jan. 31 -- ROGER SMITH, 88. A physicist who graduated from the University of Manitoba, Smith went on to work for almost 40 years with Atomic Energy of Canada, spending the last 23 years, from 1960, establishing AECL's Whiteshell Nuclear Research facility and the town of Pinawa. From 1958 to 1960, Smith also organized and led a United Nations organization based in Vienna to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons. He was honoured with the Order of Manitoba in 2000.
February
Feb. 2 -- JOYCE MILLER, 46. Born in St. Claude and raised in Elm Creek, Miller went to the 1994 Canada Special Olympics Summer Games held in Halifax and won a gold medal in the 440 metre race.
Feb. 15 -- JACK GRAHAM, 84. Developed a passionate interest in art and design at an early age and kept it his whole life. Graduating from the University of Manitoba with a degree in architecture and design, he went on to not only design sets and costumes for arts groups like the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and Rainbow Stage, but to design St. Paul's Anglican Church in Fort Garry, the U of M's western entrance gates, and the mural on the north wall of the airport terminal. He was also the Free Press's art critic for several years and president and board member of the RWB.
Feb. 16 -- ESTHER BINDER, 97. Growing up in Roblin, Binder learned to play the piano as a child and played in her family's band for community events. Later in life, after her husband died in 1966, she began volunteering by playing the piano in nursing homes and senior centres for the next 30 years. For this, in 1977 she was made a member of the Order of the Buffalo Hunt, at the time the name of the province's highest honour.
Feb. 19 -- SISTER THERESE CHAMPAGNE, 79. Born in St. Norbert, she was educated with the Grey Nuns there and at age 20 decided to enter the Congregation of the Missionary Oblate Sisters. For her more than 34 years teaching in public, private and residential schools throughout the Prairie provinces, and for her pastoral ministry in Northern missions where she came to be known as the "Mother Teresa of the North," she was honoured with the Order of Manitoba in 2004.
Feb. 20 -- ANN GATSCHUFF, 80. Raised by nuns in a Scottish orphanage from age two after her mother died during childbirth, she was in her teens and ready to become a nun herself when she was reunited with her father and sisters in Canada. Later in life, as a single parent, she worked her way up in the Fort Garry Trust Company, not only becoming a manager, but also the first woman president of the Fort Garry Chamber of Commerce and later vice-president of Canadian Tool and Die.
Feb. 24 -- BALDWIN ARNASON, 93. Like many others in Gimli, he began as a fisher with his brother. But the brothers didn't stay on the water for long, opening a car dealership, beginning Arnason Furniture in Gimli, and founding Arnason Construction which put waterworks into towns and reserves across the prairies. They developed Willow Island, first as a tourist resort and then as a residential development.
Feb. 27 -- GEORGE SMITH. He started working as a power engineer, but he made his mark with several labour organizations. He was president of the Canadian Conference of Operating Engineers and president of the Manitoba branch of the Canadian Federation of Labour.
March
March 8 -- KEN SUFFRON, 60. Developing a passion for sports as a child, he continued it as an adult, picking up a racquetball racquet and becoming a Canadian Seniors Champion in 1975.
Harvey Scrivener
March 11 -- HARVEY SCRIVENER, 70. His career was with RBC Dominion Securities, but his second career was volunteering. He served on numerous boards, including his church St. George's Anglican Church, the Winnipeg Stock Exchange, and Manitoba Liquor Control Commission, but it is his work with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers he is best remembered for. He spent more than three decades with the blue-and-gold, doing everything from ticket sales to the club's executive committee. He was inducted as a builder into the team's Hall of Fame in 2003 and his two sons were in the CFL.
March 11 -- ANNA STORGAARD, 77. Her career was working with forage crops, but she was also a professor recognized for growing students. She taught in the Plant Sciences Department at the University of Manitoba and in 1971 she was recognized with the school's Olive B. Stanton award as Teacher of the Year. She was also honoured with the Queen's Silver Jubilee Medal in 1977.
March 17 -- CAROL GREENHILL, 59. She worked with Child and Family Services, but it was because of the disease that claimed her life and the work of her husband that she will continue to be remembered by other cancer sufferers. During her 30-year fight with cancer, she was the inspiration for the annual RCMP Run for Cancer. Founded by her RCMP husband in 1982, the run has so far raised more than $1.5 million.
March 23 -- AGNES BENIDICKSON, 86. Widow of Senator Bill, a longtime MP for Kenora-Rainy River and eldest child of James A. Richardson and Muriel Sprague Richardson, and sister of James A., George and Kathleen, she founded, helped and volunteered for numerous organizations. She served as the first female chancellor of Queen's University from 1980 to 1996. She was named an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1987 and promoted to a Companion in 1998. She was also honoured with the Order of Ontario in 1991. She served 54 years on the board of the family firm, James Richardson and Sons, Ltd. She was also president of the Canadian Council on Social Development from 1972 to 1974.
Tim Fraser
March 28 -- TIM FRASER, 33. Was the first out-of-province firefighter hired by the City of Saskatoon Fire Department in 1999, before moving back to Winnipeg and joining the Winnipeg and Fire Paramedic Service. He received a medal of bravery after going into a burning three-storey building on Feb. 5, 2002, using a thermal imaging camera to rescue a woman.
April
April 3 -- JIM HALL, 72. Born in Windsor, he first met his future wife, Carolan, when he was junior high school class president and she was vice-president. Years later, they met again, married and moved to Manitoba where, after years working as a customs broker, he founded Carolan and Company Real Estate Services, specializing in cottage sales on the east side of Lake Winnipeg. He served as two-term president of the Manitoba Real Estate Association.
April 6 -- LOUIS MOURANT, 83. Enlisting with the air force during the Second World War, he became an expert in maintenance of aircraft in winter conditions after serving in the Winter Experimental Squadron based in Gimli and later as an Air Canada mechanic based in Winnipeg. For being a veteran, a member of the Royal Canadian Legion's Belgian Veterans Branch 107 since 1947, as well as being a longtime volunteer for the Canadian National Institute for the Blind and holding fitness classes for seniors, Mourant was honoured last year with a commendation from federal Minister of Veterans Affairs Greg Thompson.
April 11 -- PETER BUZUNIS, 90. Although he grew up on a farm in Saskatchewan and farmed with his parents and brothers, it was restaurants where he found his calling. After moving to Chicago and working in the restaurant business for a year, he came to Winnipeg and opened his first restaurant, the Blue Kitchen Restaurant, in the YMCA. Later, he was involved in several other restaurants including Rainbow Lunch, Pierre's, the Red Balloon, Donahue's, Theodore's and the Bird's Nest Restaurant. The first soft ice cream eaten by Manitobans were at his Shake-n-Take Ice Cream Parlours on Pembina Highway and Winnipeg Beach. He bought two steam locomotives in 1964, beginning the Assiniboine Park Railroad and the train which runs during Klondike Days in Edmonton.
David Friesen
April 14 -- DAVID FRIESEN, 95. In 1951, with his wife Katherine, he built 12 River Heights bungalows. From there the company they founded, Qualico Homes, has grown to become Western Canada's largest builder of homes, with about 3,000 a year built. The company also built the developments of Whyte Ridge, Island Lakes and River Park South. It also owns Star Building Materials. Friesen, who came from the Ukraine at age 12, and became a lawyer in the 1940s, decided to begin building houses to increase his family income.
April 16 -- JOHN GAUDES, 73. He worked as a draftsman and a technologist at Imperial Oil for more than 30 years, but it is the work he did in his spare time he was best known for. Gaudes took his self-taught talent with a paintbrush and became a well-known local artist, his work collected by both public and private institutions, and became president of the Manitoba Society of Artists. But perhaps his best known work was The Early Bird Gets the Worm, which was the winning artwork that was turned into a stamp and put on all provincial fishing licences in 2002.
Stephen Phelps
April 18 -- STEPHEN PHELPS, 58. Graduating with a Fine Arts degree at the University of Manitoba, he went on to have his first solo exhibitions in Winnipeg and Vancouver in the early 1980s. Returning to Winnipeg, he quickly became an active member of several arts organizations, including the Manitoba Theatre Centre; he was a founding member of Artspace Inc., and the founding director of the Main/Access Gallery. Writing was also his talent, writing for Border Crossings Magazine and the Winnipeg Free Press and being a gold medal finalist for several years at the Western Canadian Magazine Awards.
April 22 -- NORMA JANE HALL, 88. She was born a city girl, but it was in the rural community of Glenboro that she made her mark. Hall and her husband Charlie moved to Glenboro in 1947 and began volunteering tirelessly for the church and the community's youth. She began as a United Church Sunday School teacher and rose to become the first woman and lay president of Manitoba Conference and General Presbytery. She also served for 29 years as a school trustee on the Glenboro Consolidated Board and Tiger Hills School Division. To recognize her many years of work, the University of Winnipeg honoured her with a doctorate in 1975.
April 22 -- ART TOOTH. He grew up on a farm and spent his working career in grain, but his first love was baseball. A pitcher, Tooth was scouted by major league scouts and tried out for the St. Louis Cardinals in 1948, but he was deemed too old at only 24. Undeterred, he joined the Canadian Ukrainian Athletic Centre Blues and led them to the top of the Manitoba Senior League and the provincial championship in 1952. He even pitched a three-hitter against Northern League all-stars that same year. After his baseball career ended, he worked for Pioneer Grain Ltd., rising to vice-president of country operations and operating 450 grain elevators across the prairies and three terminals in Montreal, Thunder Bay and Vancouver. He was inducted into the Manitoba Baseball Hall of Fame in 2004.
Murray McKenzie
April 23 -- MURRAY MCKENZIE, 80. Born in Saskatchewan, it was Manitoba's north where he spent his life and worked as a commercial fisherman, radio announcer and trapper, among other things, but it was his work with his camera for which he was best known. He took photographs throughout the north with Winnipeg Free Press writer Bob Lowery, several of which have been shown in galleries around the world. The Winnipeg Art Gallery has six of his photographs in its collection.
April 30 -- BRYSON (DOC) MURRAY, 81. A physician for many years, he also found ways of volunteering his skills in his community. He was the team physician for the Winnipeg Jets and served as president of the General Practitioners' Association, president of the medical staff at Concordia Hospital and president of the Concordia Hospital Foundation.
May
May 4 -- WAYNE GOVEREAU, 48. Children and their rights were at the forefront of his career. Growing up in Fisher Bay, he later obtained his social work degree at the University of Manitoba before joining Southeast Child and Family Services. He became the province's Native Services Coordinator and was later appointed the province's first Children's Advocate.
Lawrence Anonychuk
May 6 -- LAWRENCE ANONYCHUK, 64. His life went to the dogs -- and horses -- after graduating in theology. He raised champion German shepherds, including the only dog ever awarded the Bankers Gold Medal for Heroism, and trained dogs for the Manitoba Motion Picture Industry. Not only was he a lifetime member of the Canadian Kennel Club, he raised miniature horses and became president of the National Canadian Thoroughbred Society.
May 9 -- ELSIE STEINKE. When she married she became a farmer's wife, but it was her husband's early death which led her to become the farmer, running the farm herself with her two teenage daughters. Her work as a farmer brought her recognition, including a nomination for the Canadian Woman Entrepreneur of the Year in 1992. She was the first woman director on the Manitoba Pool Association and was later appointed to the Manitoba Farm Mediation Board. True to form, even her final day was spent working in agriculture -- she spent a full day gardening before dying in her sleep.
May 10 -- DONALDA FENSKE, 49. She worked in the Mystery Lake School Division in Thompson, but she was best known for bringing the arts to Thompson. She was president for several years of the Thompson Festival of the Arts. She served as an inspiration during the six years she lived with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS).
May 13 -- DAVE PEKARY, 70. He worked for the mining industry and serviced them as a Dominion Rubber/Uniroyal sales representative, but while living in North Kildonan he was voted in as a councillor and then as mayor. While serving, he helped establish the first community club in North Kildonan.
Chuck Badcock
May 14 -- CHUCK BADCOCK, 79. Treating sore muscles and injuries with the city's professional athletes was his trade for years. He learned massage therapy after serving 23 years with the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps, later becoming head trainer at the British Commonwealth Games in 1974. He spent 10 years with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and then went to the Winnipeg Jets from 1980 to 1991. He was inducted into both the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame and the Canadian Athletic Therapists Association Hall of Fame.
May 17 -- PETER CAPAR, 76. An educator for decades, even after he retired he still helped students in the Interlake. He began his teaching career by permit teaching at Shorencliff School north of Arborg and completing his teaching degree during summer and evening courses. He served generations of students as teacher and principal at Fraserwood School for several years, starting in 1955, until transferring to Gimli Composite High School in 1966, where he stayed until retiring in 1986. But he still kept his hand in education by being elected after retirement as a school trustee and chairman of the Evergreen School Division. He was also president of the Ukrainian National Home's Fraserwood Hall for more than 40 years, presiding over the construction of the new hall there, as well as president of the Ukrainian Catholic Brotherhood of Canada, Archeparchy of Winnipeg.
May 17 -- MARGARET PIASECKI, 80. Dance and the hope to keep it for future generations was her life's work. She danced with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet from 1938 to 1948 and then danced in England and the United States. She came back to Winnipeg and performed with the ballet as a guest artist as well as appearing several times in Rainbow Stage productions. She served several terms as president of the RWB's Alumni Association and she co-founded the Winnipeg Dance Preservation Initiative.
May 22 -- AMIR AHSAN, 74. He gave back to his patients, his community and his culture. After graduating from Dhaka Medical College in Pakistan, he went to Chicago and then Winnipeg. He did joint replacement surgery here and volunteered his skills with CARE Medico in Third World countries. Outside of medicine, he was one of three founding trustees of the Manitoba Islamic Association and active in building the Hazelwood Mosque.
Syd Davy
May 30 -- SYD DAVY, 72. Sports, royalty and a spy were three of his loves through life. He was the undefeated Manitoba/Saskatchewan lightweight amateur boxing champion in his twenties. After retiring from CN Rail, he devoted his time to the Royal Commonwealth Society, spending 20 of those years as president. He also founded and was president of the Intrepid Society and an expert in "the Man Called Intrepid," Sir William Stephenson. He commissioned a statue to Stephenson by Leo Mol and helped convince the city to name a library after the spymaster.
May 30 -- BUD DONOVAN, 92. Golf was in his blood from an early age. Winning both the Manitoba junior title and the Manitoba Open in his teens, he was one of eight Canadian amateur golfers to go on a tour of Britain in 1935. He later came second in the first General Brock Open Championship, beating all but one American and Canadian professional golfer and was the first Canadian to get a golf scholarship to an American university. He gave up competitive golf and worked in the insurance business, but in later years, he became a colour commentator for CBC radio and television for 15 years.
June
June 4 -- JOHN WALLACE, 83. While farming in the Niverville area, he volunteered in this community, serving on the local school board and organizing the first 4-H clubs in Niverville. He later was elected to the RM of Ritchot council and was the reeve until 1972. He was re-elected as reeve in 1986 and served until 1992.
June 5 -- PAT WARRENCHUK, 83. She devoted her life to the Ukrainian Catholic Women's League. From 1954 until her death, she served the church in many roles, serving as president of St. Josephat's and St. Basil's Churches, two terms as regional president, provincial (archeparchial) president, and sitting on the National Executive.
Jack Duncan
June 5 -- JACK DUNCAN, 75. A lawyer and judge, Duncan also gave back to the community of Morden where he was raised. He was called to the bar in 1958 and practiced in Morden for many years. While there, he was a fire chief, president of Morden's Royal Canadian Legion branch, and on the board of St. Paul's United Church, the hospital and the beach committee. He served as president of the Law Society of Manitoba in 1980 and he was appointed a Court of Queen's Bench justice for Brandon in 1991 before transferring to Winnipeg in 1996.
Addy Ryngach
June 5 -- ADDY RYNGACH, 58. An athlete from an early age, tennis and basketball were her greatest successes. She was one of the province's top ranked junior tennis players and she won the Prairie provinces singles tennis championship and was named the University of Manitoba's female athlete of the year in 1970. She went on into coaching and teaching at Westwood Collegiate and the University of Manitoba and was named Great Plains Athletic Conference's coach of the year in 1983. She was inducted into the Manitoba Basketball Hall of Fame in 1994.
June 15 -- PATRICIA YATES, 87. Born and raised in London, England, she and her family came to Canada after the Second World War and spent her last 50 years in Virden, bringing the culture she experienced in England to the prairie community. She directed theatre there and organized local performances by the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and the Stratford Festival Players.
Jim Zayshley
June 21 -- JIM ZAYSHLEY, 90. He was on his way to serve in the Second World War when he began battling another war. He was diagnosed with tuberculosis, a disease he not only fought then, but dedicated his life to battle. During the years to come, he travelled a million miles across the province working with the Manitoba Lung Association, being featured in the organization's Christmas Seals fundraising letter in 2003, a film produced by the Sanatorium Board of Manitoba, and a book about tuberculosis control in the province.
Vic Savino
June 22 -- VIC SAVINO, 60. Lawyer who specialized in aboriginal issues. He also wrote a monthly law column for The First Perspective, a national aboriginal newspaper.
June 26 -- MARJORIE NELSON, 78. Decades after being taken away from her family at the Roseau River First Nation when she was six, she decided to go back to school to help her people learn their Ojibwa language. She worked as a teacher's aid for more than 20 years while spending seven years earning her teacher's degree in language. She graduated from the University of Thunder Bay when she was 63 and came back to the reserve's Ginew School to teach Ojibwa for a number of years.
June 27 -- PETER DUCHECK, 88. A farmer all his life, he also contributed a great deal to his community. He was elected as a councillor in the RM of St. Andrews in 1953, became reeve in 1975, and finally retired in 1989. He also sat on the Clean Environment Board and was one of the original directors on the Selkirk and District Planning Board.
June 29 -- THOMAS PRINCE, 63. He was his father's eldest son, but for many people he became the public face of war hero Sgt. Tommy Prince. Prince's father, who fought in both the Second World War and the Korean War and is Canada's most decorated aboriginal war hero, died in 1977 before a great deal of the recent honours bestowed on him came. So through the years Prince's son, who was also the great-great-great-grandson of Chief Peguis, attended numerous ceremonies and spoke about his father.
July
July 3 -- BOB KIRK, 92. He specialized in the disease and nutrition of ranch mink and foxes, working with the province for most of his career, and developing vaccines for the animals. At the same time, he also had a CBC television show in 1960 called Here's My Pet.
Tibor Feheregyhazi
July 10 -- TIBOR FEHEREGYHAZI, 75. If not for a revolution, he might never have trod a Winnipeg stage. Born in Hungary, he became a child actor with the country's National Radio service, and later appeared in numerous stage and film productions there. When Soviet tanks moved in to crush the Hungarian Revolution in 1956, he fled the country and later came to Canada. To get back on the stage in his new country, he washed hospital floors and attended the National Theatre School in Montreal, later becoming an actor and production director at Manitoba Theatre Centre. He went on to become longtime artistic director of the Persephone Theatre in Saskatoon and was named to the Order of Canada in 2005.
July 11 -- JIMMIE SKINNER, 90. He may not have built the renowned hot dog business in Lockport -- that was his father -- but he was instrumental in decorating it. He played hockey in Winnipeg and Flin Flon before joining the Detroit Red Wings in the NHL with Gordie Howe before going into coaching. He took the team to a Stanley Cup win in the 1950s and coached three NHL all-star games before health issues forced him to quit. He also worked in the off-season with the rest of his family at the Lockport restaurant. He was inducted into the Manitoba Hockey Sports Hall of Fame and the Flin Flon Hall of Fame.
July 15 -- JOHN KLASSEN, 78. He spent a life in business, but believed in giving back to the community. He served as chairman, director, president and advisor at several businesses, including the business founded by his father, Monarch Industries. But he was honoured with the commemorative medal for the 125th anniversary of Confederation for his volunteer work with several charitable foundations including universities and health boards, and as chairman of the First Mennonite Church Council and the Winnipeg Centennial Celebrations Committee. He was also honoured with the Decoration of Honour in Gold for his service as Honorary Consul to Austria.
Mary Scoles
July 23 -- MARY SCOLES, 110. At the time of her death she was the country's oldest person with documentation to back up her age. Her mother, who died of tuberculosis nine days after her birth, had gone from Treherne to a cathedral in Quebec City to pray that she live long enough to give birth to her child. The secret to her long life appeared to be walking everywhere and living an active life -- living in her own home until 97, flying several times to Las Vegas in her nineties and drinking lots of black tea with plenty of sugar.
Marcel Bertrand
July 23 -- MARCEL BERTRAND, 66. He worked in the family company, Paramount Windows, but it was the disease that killed him -- and what he did with the short time left him -- where he made his living legacy. He was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis in Feb. 2000. When the local ALS Society was given a house in St. James to turn into a hospice and respite facility, it was his connections in the building industry that resulted in the Brummitt-Feasby ALS House. When the house opened it was the first hospice in North America for people with ALS. He also served two terms as chairman of the local ALS Society's board.
Jean Daum
July 23 -- JEAN DAUM, 56. Bored by reading sugar packets in restaurants, she came up with the idea of Coffee News, a single-sheet tan-coloured flyer, featuring advertising and lighthearted news, which by the time of her death had become the largest franchise publication in the world, with eight to 10 million readers a week, 1,000 franchises, and published in 40 countries. Earlier this year, Entrepreneur Magazine called Coffee News one of the most successful franchise operations in North America, ranking it 68 out of 500.
July 25 -- DEMPSEY VALGARDSON. He was probably the only Gimli fisherman who ever put on a tie before going out to set or lift a net, but he was also known for fighting for the underdog, both in fishing and banking. He was a driving force behind organizing the Manitoba Federation of Fishermen and the Freshwater Fish Marketing Board. He was also an original director of the Gimli Credit Union, operating it out of his living room before permanent headquarters were built.
July 25 -- EVELYN THORVALDSON, 68. Born in Winnipeg and raised in Lundar, nevertheless, she was an Icelandic Canadian through and through. She was president of the Icelandic National League in 1991 -- 92 and she was instrumental in the turnaround of the Icelandic newspaper, the Lögberg-Heimskringla, and the success of the INL convention recently held in Winnipeg.
July 27 -- JOHN RITZ, 56. He worked for Centra Gas for 25 years, but his heart was with a little prairie berry. With his wife in 2003, he risked more than a quarter of a million dollars to become the first to market saskatoon berry products in Europe. At first, Prairie Lane Saskatoons exported the berries to Britain and some other European Union countries, but then the British slapped a ban on them, wondering if they were safe to eat. It took a year, but a German government agency led the drive to lift the ban.
July 29 -- VIC GOERTZEN, 44. Driving massive rigs down the open highway was his job, but it was his poetry and humour that was best known. He wrote the column A Twist of Freight for Highway Star magazine, the country's premier trade magazine on trucking.
Mel Wilson
July 29 -- MEL WILSON, 91. Football was such a love for him that he even jumped the fence at an early age to see senior football games in the city. He played high school football and later played for the Winnipeg Rugby Football Club, which became the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, as centre and linebacker during which he won a Grey Cup in 1939. After serving in the war, he played with the Bombers, Montreal Alouettes and Calgary Stampeders until retiring in 1951. He was named All-Western five times, All-Canadian three times and is a member of the Winnipeg Football Hall of Fame. He was also inducted into the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame individually and as a member of the 1939 and 1941 Blue Bombers.
July 30 -- NELSON STARR, 71. With his brother, he became famous across the country by the simplest of acts -- waving to motorists passing through the Brokenhead Ojibway Nation on their way to Grand Beach. Several days weekly, the brothers tramped through the weeds at the side of the highway and waved while standing or waving. By the time of his passing, the actions of the brothers had even sparked an Internet site devoted to them.
July 31 -- GLENN KREUTZER, 64. You might say that honey was in his blood. He started his beekeeping business in 1965 and grew it to become Kreutzer Honey Farms in Portage la Prairie. He was president of the Manitoba Beekeepers Association in 1982 and 1983 and a long-time director. For his contributions, the MBA honoured him with its Bee Hive Award. He was also a director of the Manitoba Honey Co-op and Bee Maid Honey, and chairman of the Manitoba Honey Marketing Board in 1983. The Rotary Club of Manitoba named him one of its five Young Outstanding Manitobans in 1977.
August
Aug. 11 -- VAN HALL, 68. Throughout his working career and into retirement, he decided to work with the less advantaged and put public service above private gain. He worked with CUSO and implemented Tanzania's first professional accountancy program. He undertook development work in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean and he served on the boards of public institutions and non-profit organizations including the Manitoba Lotteries Commission, Klinic Community Health Centre, Oxfam and Assiniboine Credit Union. A month before he died he was told he had been awarded one of the province's highest honours, the Order of the Buffalo Hunt, given out annually by the premier.
Aug. 17 -- JACK JOHNSTONE, 84. Born in England, he volunteered and joined the Royal Air Force during the Second World War, flying on war operations both in Europe and Southeast Asia. A few years after the war, he took theological training in Saskatoon and was ordained into the Anglican Church in 1958. Continuing to fly, he worked for several years at aboriginal reserves, learning to speak Cree fluently. Later, he moved to Winnipeg, where he worked as executive director of the Sir Hugh John Macdonald Memorial Hostel, a treatment centre for troubled youth, now called Macdonald Youth Services. He was also past president of the Wartime Pilots and Observers Association. For both his work with youth and with veteran pilots he received the Order of Canada in 1979.
Aug. 18 -- PAUL DYZANDRA, 90. Boxing was in his blood at the young age of 17. Three years later, the Transcona-born boxer had the Manitoba Welterweight title under his belt, followed by the Manitoba Middleweight title the next year and the Dominion of Canada title the year after. As a professional, he toured the United States, fighting 25 successful bouts, but his boxing career came to an end when he enlisted with the RCAF in the Second World War. In later life he worked as a welder at CN Rail.
Aug. 19 -- ISABEL THOMSON, 88. From a young age, she was into sports, hitting three baseballs through a neighbour's window before a local softball club came calling for her on-field prowess. She went on to play 15 years of senior women's softball with the East Kildonan Olympians and the Winnipeg Ramblers. She also played basketball with the Altomahs and the Winnipeg Pegs, a team which almost always finished in first place in the province. She was inducted into the Manitoba Softball Hall of Fame in May.
John Scouras
Aug. 21 -- JOHN SCOURAS, 67. Born in Greece, he came to Winnipeg to join his two brothers in the restaurant business. They opened their first restaurant, Junior's, in 1957, but it was their later Red Top restaurant, opened in 1960, which became a local landmark. Soccer was also one of his great loves and he managed and coached the Greek soccer team named the Olympians, later called Hellas. He was president of the Manitoba Central Soccer League when he died. He also was a driving force behind the dream of building a Manitoba Hellenic Cultural Centre, which saw ground broken for the project a few weeks after his death.
Aug. 23 -- ALEX GROSHAK, 82. Canadian Ukrainian music might still only be heard at weddings and socials and Neil Young might be an unknown if he hadn't formed Regis Records and V Records. Working in the recording industry, he realized that while Canadian Ukrainian music was played live at weddings and socials, you couldn't buy a record to play at home. He created the record labels and recorded the first recording of Canadian Ukrainian music -- The Ukrainian Wedding Dance --- featuring Jim Gregorash numerous other musicians. He even recorded The Squires when Neil Young was a member.
Aug. 25 -- CHARLES IVES. Squash was his racket through his life. Born in England, he first worked as a ball-boy at Wimbledon and then junior professional. Coming to Winnipeg in 1934, he taught at the Winter Club and Squash Racquet Club. He also joined the Carleton Club in 1977. For his lifetime commitment to the sport, he was honoured with the Queen's Silver Jubilee Medal and made an honourary citizen of the city by Mayor Steve Juba. He was inducted into the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame in 1986.
September
Edwin Kimelman
Sept. 2 -- EDWIN KIMELMAN. A lawyer, he was appointed a provincial court judge in the 1970s, rising to associate chief. Called a pioneer of child welfare reform, he wrote a report on the effects of child welfare on the province's aboriginal children, concluding the system was guilty of "cultural genocide." After retiring from the bench, he served on a board studying the supervision and monitoring of the city's sex trade. He also was president of the Jewish Child and Family Service and a board member of numerous other organizations including the Sharon Home, United Way and Camp Massad.
Sept. 2 -- CATHERINE SANDNEY, 52. Working in a male-dominated field, she started her work in corrections as a part-time matron and before her passing she had risen to become the first female superintendent of the Headingley Correctional Centre, the province's jail for men.
Dorothy Betz
Sept. 9 -- DOROTHY BETZ, 78. Losing her parents at a young age and being raised in a residential school inspired her to help others avoid such hurt. She was one of the original founding members of the Indian and Métis Friendship Centre and she pioneered the aboriginal court communicators program. She was the province's first aboriginal court worker and she was also the first aboriginal woman appointed to the National Parole Board. She went on to address the United Nations congress in Switzerland in 1975 about aboriginal issues. For her life's work, she was honoured with a National Aboriginal Achievement Award in 1999 and the Order of the Buffalo Hunt.
Sept. 10 -- SARAH BROWN, 20. She danced her way through her too-short life and even performed for Queen Elizabeth II. She started dancing competitive Highland dancing when she was only five and received many awards across the country and overseas.
Ted Schaefer
Sept. 15 -- TED SCHAEFER. He went from being born in a prairie pioneer village without roads during the Depression to being honoured with the Order of Canada as a distinguished chemistry professor at the University of Manitoba. He produced hundreds of scientific papers and he helped establish nuclear magnetic resonance as one of the most important techniques in chemistry and structural biology. He was a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and he was named the province's Outstanding Chemist of the Year in 1989.
Sept. 18 -- PETER SHELTON, 92. He had several lifetimes worth of careers. He first became a commercial artist after studying with Group of Seven artist L.L. Fitzgerald. He then earned a science degree at the University of Manitoba and studied entomology at the Morden research station before serving in the Second World War. After the war, he became a doctor and trained in general surgery. He practiced in the North End. He also served as president of the Association of General Practitioners of Manitoba and treasurer of the Manitoba Medical Association.
Sept. 18 -- JACK SMYTH, 71. His dad was a caretaker in the Winnipeg School Division, but Smyth himself rose to become chief superintendent there before retiring in 2001. When he was younger he was a star athlete, being named the province's athlete of the year and Canada's outstanding amateur athlete of the year in 1958. He also won a silver medal in the Commonwealth Games, was named an All-American in track and field, and was the NCAA champion in the triple jump.
Sept. 19 -- TERRY HOGAN, 70. He left the United States to became a psychology professor at the University of Manitoba in 1969 and during his 35 years there he held numerous positions, including Dean of Graduate Studies. He was president of the Canadian Psychological Association, the Psychological Association of Manitoba and the Canadian Society for the Study of Higher Education. He was named member of the year in 2001 by the CPA.
Sept. 20 -- KEN GRAHAM, 93. Not too many transit bus drivers become presidents of major financial institutions, but that's exactly what he did. He was a life member of the Amalgamated Transit Union while a bus driver and he was chosen bus driver of the year in 1967. But he was also a member of the Assiniboine Credit Union since it began and, among other positions there, he also served as president of its board of directors. Even after retirement in 1979, buses were still in his blood and be spent hours volunteering at the Manitoba Heritage Association restoring old buses.
Sept. 22 -- ALBERT MORIN, 83. He worked at several jobs through the years and owned a grocery store and oil agency in Inwood, but it was after retirement when he had more time for pitching horseshoes that it took him places. He participated in the National Horseshoe Pitchers Association's world championships in Kitchener in 1997 -- the first time it was ever held outside of the United States -- and he was crowned world champion after winning his division, besting other pitchers from Pennsylvania, New York and Oklahoma.
Sept. 23 -- HAROLD BASTABLE, 89. He enlisted in the air force in 1942, and trained as a navigator. Two years later he was shot down over Paris and spent the rest of the war a prisoner, ending up in the Buchenwald Concentration Camp. After the war, he was very active in helping sick veterans on outings and social functions, collecting used books for overseas military personnel, and raising funds for wheelchair and sports programs. For his volunteer efforts, he was awarded the Governor General's Caring Canadian award in 2001. He also became the first recipient of the George (Buzz) Buerling Appreciation Award as thanks for the numerous times he spoke to groups to educate them about what it was like to be imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp. He wasn't the only hero in the family -- his brother Vern, who died in 1949, when his jet crashed in Charleswood, was one of the few Canadians given the Military Cross during the war, while his brother Gerry died in France while serving with the Canadian army.
October
-- BELLE MEYERS, 92. She spent her lifetime in Winnipeg and left the city a better place through her volunteerism. Among others, she helped establish the entertainment program at Sharon Home. She was honoured by both Winnipeg's mayor and the premier as Volunteer of the Year.
Oct. 2 -- FRANCES MOORE, 92. She also was a volunteer who left her community, Teulon, a better place. She received numerous awards for her lifetime of community volunteerism with the premier's Volunteer award the one she took great pride in receiving.
Oct. 4 -- RON OSWALD, 56. He worked as an accountant and certified fraud examiner with the Auditor General, but he also volunteered. He served as president of the Alzheimer Society of Manitoba and was on the board of the Alzheimer Society of Canada. For this, he was honoured with the commemorative medal for the 125th anniversary of Canadian Confederation for serving the community. He volunteered at the Winnipeg Folk Festival and this year he was given the Stained Glass Banjo Award, the festival's highest honour.
Joe Robertson
Oct. 7 -- JOE ROBERTSON, 93. He began trapping and spending a lifetime in the outdoors when his father moved his family to The Pas. He became a conservation officer and while working from 1940 to 1976 he kept a diary of his adventures which he later turned into his book From Prairie to Tundra. He founded the Fort Dauphin Museum. He was named the Canadian Wildlife Federation's Man of the Year in 2001 and added to the Order of Canada earlier this year.
Oct. 19 -- FRANK WHITE, 81. With his boxing gloves, he represented Manitoba across the country and around the world. He started boxing at the young age of nine and later became the provincial and Canadian Featherweight champion. He qualified for the 1948 Olympics and represented Canada at the 1950 British Empire Games in New Zealand. He later spent most of his working life at the Winnipeg International Airport.
Oct. 29 -- BILL BRIERCLIFFE, 78. He began his married life as the third generation on the family farm, but he changed careers beginning in 1961 when he began taking mortuary science in Chicago. With his wife, he purchased the Cook Funeral Home in Transcona (now the Transcona Funeral Chapel) and moved his family into the second floor. He later constructed a new funeral chapel on Day Street. He was later the president of the Manitoba Funeral Service Association and was the longest-serving funeral director in the province. Outside of funerals, he was also president of the Transcona Kiwanis Club and he was involved in the planned restoration of the CN Rail steam locomotive in Kiwanis Park.
Oct. 30 -- DON BROWNRIDGE, 88. Ploughing, curling and golfing were three sports he devoted his life to. Starting at the family farm near Portage la Prairie, he represented the province three times at the Canadian Ploughing Competitions. His curling team won the Portage club championship six times, the senior zone seven times and represented the province at the Canadian Senior Curling Championships twice. He also loved golf and was instrumental in beginning the Senior Golf Tournament and the Six Pack at the Portage Golf Club.
Oct. 31 -- FRANCES WIDDICOMBE, 92. She said: "music has the power to make you love, laugh, dance and cry," and she produced a lot of it during her life. She accompanied for a Christmas concert when she was only nine and went on to play piano and organ. She was organist at Westminster United Church in Foxwarren for 53 years and the accompanist for the Foxwarren Ladies Ensemble for 40 years. For her musical contributions she was nominated for a YWCA Women of Distinction Award for the performing arts.
November
John Fehr
Nov. 15 -- JOHN FEHR, 81. While he founded John Fehr Insurance, he never forgot how much he enjoyed working as a bus driver for an intercity bus company when he was younger. Because of this, he purchased Beaver Bus Lines in 1972 and in 1979 created Fehr-Way Tours, now the largest charter tour operator in the province.
Nov. 16 -- RAY STOYKO, 55. Teaching and encouraging students to do their best was his life's work. He taught at Andrew Mynarski, Sisler and Kelvin High Schools and received the Winnipeg Teachers' Association's Distinguished Service Award in 2003. He was elected the WTA's vice president in 2005 and he became president in 2007.
December
Dec. 6 -- HANK CARTY, 81. Shooting was his life. He became a member of the Dominion of Canada Rifle Association and remained a member for 56 years. He was president of the Manitoba Provincial Rifle Association from 1984 to 1993. He also received several awards for his shooting including the Manitoba Lieutenant Governor's Gold Medal for top shooter in 1989.
Dec. 10 -- LORNE MILGAARD, 78. The father of David Milgaard provided quiet support through the 23 years his son spent in prison for a murder David didn't commit. Lorne "was a very physically big guy. He was so physically strong, yet having no power to stop what was happening to his son," said lawyer Hersh Wolch.
Albert Vielfaure
Dec. 12 -- ALBERT VIELFAURE, 84. Farming, politics and the francophone community were his loves. He and two of his brothers-in-law built one of the first hog barns around La Broquerie and they were also among the first to grow corn for grain. He was named the province's Farmer of the Year in 1979 and inducted into the province's Agricultural Hall of Fame in 2002. He was elected a Liberal MLA representing La Verendrye from 1962 to 1969. He served on the advisory board for the CBC French Network's farming programming. For all his contributions to the francophone community, he was honoured with the Prix Riel. He also received the Queen's Jubilee medal in 2002.
Dec. 16 -- GEORGE KENT, 92. One of Canada's finest tenors, the Winnipeg-born soloist and choral conductor got his start at age nine, singing soprano in the Winnipeg Boys' Choir. Kent enlisted in the Second World War and served with the Royal Canadian Air Force in England, where his soaring tenor tones over the airwaves grew to be a source of comfort for thousands of anxious listeners in wartime. After the war, the singer came home to Winnipeg to pursue his passion for music, first serving as choirmaster at Knox United Church and then as conductor of the Winnipeg Male Voice Choir from 1955 to 1957. During his 50-year career with music, Kent also performed with symphony orchestras across North America and recorded with the CBC.
Dec. 26 -- JUDY STOREY, 61. For 18 years, Storey was a familiar voice on CBC Radio's Saturday morning show as she promoted Manitoba foods. When her daughters were in their teens, Storey was recruited by Manitoba Agriculture, where she worked until her death.
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