Maurice "Moe" Sydney Haagenson

Maurice (Moe) Sydney Haagenson, age 84, died on February 7, 2020, in Gresham, OR, after a year-long battle with esophageal cancer. He was surrounded by family and friends.

Moe was born on a farm in Robinhood, Saskatchewan, December 1, 1935, the youngest of twelve children. His father, Ole, died when he was 2, and the family struggled to make a living on the farm. His mother, Anna, and two sisters later moved to Western Canada, and Moe was raised by his older sisters.

After high school, he spent a year working in a Uranium City mine and earned his airplane pilot’s license. In 1958, he joined the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP),” A” Troop. During the 16 years in the RCMP, he was a bush pilot, scuba diver, achieved rank of corporal and was assigned to places like Fort Churchill, Regina, Ottawa, Assiniboia, Shellbrook and Lynn Lake.

Moe was always an entrepreneur, starting a campground business and developing time-share campgrounds. A natural salesman, he worked in marketing and sales with various time-share companies. He also started a property management firm and owned a small mall in Pennsylvania and a mall-like building in Dawson City, Yukon Territory. He holds a patent for golf cart curtains and started Simplefit to sell the product.

Moe was an avid and life-long golfer and has played the great courses in Scotland and across the US and Canada. As a member at Persimmon Country Club, Gresham, he won the Men’s Senior Championship (2004) and the Super Senior Championship (2013). He was also a skilled horseshoe and badminton player. With his wife, Donna Kurilo, whom he married in 1998, he traveled extensively, and their passports had visa and entry stamps from Albania to Zanzibar. They traveled for 18 months in an RV through Mexico, Honduras, Nicaragua, Belize, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Panama without incident. Moe was also a great storyteller, regaling friends and family, and the world, on his Sevenwood Word Press blog, of their adventures in Latin America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and especially, Portugal, Morocco, Egypt, Malaysia and Vietnam. Donna died January 25, 2020, two weeks before Moe.

He is survived by his sisters, Josephine Chevalier and Eileen Fudger, Canada, daughter Barbara Haagenson, and sons, Phillip Haagenson and Christopher Haagenson, Canada. He is also survived by three grandchildren Charles Hugh Haagenson, Anthony Phillip Haagenson, Alexander Maurice Haagenson, and one great grandchild Phoebe Joy Haagenson, Canada.

A Memorial Celebration of his life will be held in Spring 2020 at the Persimmon Country Club.