Think of you lots Jeanette and Carol💕 the times we spent in High Prairie and your visits  to Camrose as a family hold dear to my ❤️ love you all 
Janice And Rick Graumann

I only learnt today of Greg’s passing (February 6, 2022) from an email from a colleague in Vancouver at Clark, Wilson where I had worked as a lawyer for some 21 years up until 2009 when I left  to live with my family in England.  I had never worked with Greg on any files, as we had differing practice areas, but I remember him well, as a thoroughly decent and well mannered  colleague who was smart and funny and always had an infectious smile.  I have learned now how very brave he was as well and I am very sad for his family that he was afflicted with such pain for so long and  taken so young.  Good Bless him.  My sincerest condolences to his family, Kerstin Tapping x

I had the incredible good fortune to article at Clark Wilson alongside Greg. His big smile, gentle way, kind heart, booming voice and his brilliance were just a few of his many virtues.  When I or one of the other students were feeling stressed out during articles GRA would put everything into perspective and calm us down. He was a big part of the reason our articling cohort felt like a family.  To this day I cannot pass a McDonalds without thinking of him lol!  Greg’s courage throughout his health issues is legendary and inspirational. My life is so much richer for having had Greg in it and I know so many who would say the same. Our thoughts are with his lovely family at this time of sorrow. He loved you all so very much. XO

Greg was a highly regarded member of CPHR BC & Yukon, serving on our Advisory Council for a term and always willing to support and help HR professionals learn.  We will miss his positive contribution to our association.  
Carolyne Taylor | Member Relations Manager
Vancouver Island Region

I was sad to read this news in the paper today. Thinking of you all. Your Tofino friend. 

I first met Greg in residence at the University of Calgary in September of 1985. Over the years, he would become my best friend and roommate. I have so many memories...

Little things; we made a habit of coming home at lunchtime, often eating one of the gift packages, meat pies from Greg's parents.  I cant recall why we ended up watching about three years of Days of our Lives.

I remember trying to light a BBQ one Friday night on our balcony, but we didn't have any lighter fluid. We searched and searched the apt looking for something flammable that  would light the briquettes before settling on aftershave... I think it was mine.

Greg made me a much better person. He was always disciplined and conscientious at School. Me, not so much. But he did inspire me to try harder.

After he moved to Vancouver to law school, we kept in touch. He was a huge influence in me following later. Soon after I moved, I was staying with him and was dating this young lady that would become my wife. My parents would call early on Sunday mornings and I was almost never home. Greg covered for me several times before he broke the news to my folks.

Kirsty and I had many dinners with Greg and his parents, Rene and Jeanette, when they moved into his place in Kits to take care of him when he first became ill with Crohn's. Even ill, Greg loved to argue, especially with his Dad. Those are the first times that I became aware of Gregs strength of will. Even so sick, sometimes not being able to eat, he would mercilessly and good naturedly needle his father. We all would spend the night laughing and giggling at their philosophical differences.

Finally, I remember how happy he was when he first met Karilyn. It was the marriage that made his life. I was proud to be a witness at their wedding and he to mine.

John Taylor



Ray and I remember Greg as a childhood friend of our own children growing up in High Prairie.
I am very saddened to hear of Greg's passing.
Reading tributes to him here one is touched by what a remarkable man he was.  But I am not surprised, as he showed those qualities as a child.  He was always pleasant, caring and thoughtful of others.
We send our sincere condolences to his family.

Greg grew up in High Prairie, Alberta - population 2,281.  If you grew up in High Prairie you made your own fun.  

Greg’s family lived in ‘the circle’.  The grassy field in the middle of the circle was worn low by constant ball hockey, soccer, kick the can, capture the flag, or simply hanging out.  The road around and around and around this field was a safe place for junior cyclists.  Mostly.  One day Greg and I built a wooden jump for our bicycles.  Greg’s ‘banana bike’ flew through the air and landed elegantly, big back wheel first and smaller front wheel second.  I had not learned balance so well, and I ended up with a mild concussion (bike helmets still belonged to the future).  Ever the forward thinking analytical mind, first Greg ensured that I was safely in the grass by the roadside, and second he cleared away all evidence of our jump before engaging adult assistance.  Finally, Greg ran all the way to my house and diplomatically extricated my mother from a social event so that I could be looked after.  

Indoors was technological entertainment.  Neither available television channel held us, but Greg acquired a broken toaster at quite a young age.  We spent hours ‘fixing’ it and similar objects although we were forbidden to plug them in.  His gasoline powered purple plastic airplane flew in circles tethered by a string.  It required at least a ten to one ratio of maintenance hours to flight hours, anticipating many future hobbies.  Greg was first with the Hewlett Packard programmable calculator with reverse polish notation – making him the envy of all High Prairie’s geeks.  His lunar lander program was OK.  He learned to program a TRS-80 and a Commodore 64, with more and more elaborate games.  Some considered Donkey Kong and Jump Man a waste of time,  Greg could argue that point eloquently (from either side).  Greg's warm and curious nature was with him from an early age.  His grace and forbearance live on in everyone he touched and he is dearly missed.

I had the privilege of being Greg's family physician for about 20 years. He epitomized the rewards of the profession  for me and other medics.  He handled his illnesses  with extraordinary grace, thoughtfulness, confidence  and smart, self-deprecating humour.  He brought out the best in his doctors, inspiring us to give our absolute best to being his health care team, and tho'  Greg himself was our reward, he also never failed to express gratitude, even in the face of losing the battle. He was, I think, actually the bravest gentleman I ever knew, surely a model for all who knew him, and ,in his fortitude and attitude,  an enduring  treasure for his deeply bereaved family. 
I should also like to add a tribute to his lovely wife, Karilyn, almost certainly the source and sustainer of much of Greg's strength, having preserved a "can-do" positivity herself in the setting of remarkable, cheerful resilience in the face of her own considerable health problems.  They were, in my experience, a model couple, the best of human kind, and must have provided a heritage to be proud of  for Maddy and Emmett, whose very existence expressed the faith of their parents . 
The family does thus now have something wonderful, rare and indelible, sustaining  the core of their lives, remembering in the bad times the cloth they are cut from. 
Requiescat in Pace.

Barbara and I first met Greg Anctil shortly after he and Karilyn got engaged.  Barbara and Karilyn had become friends as hospital roommates a few years earlier in Toronto.  Greg and Karilyn drove us to Whistler (back when the Sea-to-Sky was more of an adventure), and then to see Granville Island the next day.  We enjoyed wine on the rooftop deck at Greg’s place in Kitsilano as the sun set.  

 Greg and Karilyn’s wedding was in a place that we would come back to many times:  Tofino.  We went whale watching with some of the other guests on a sunny fall day; and on the next day it was overcast outside but in the small church where Greg and Karilyn exchanged their vows it was brimming with goodwill.

Greg and Karilyn stayed with us in Toronto for a wedding of a colleague of Greg’s and then had a brief visit with a surgeon friend of Greg’s and a securities friend of Karilyn’s.  Greg had his heart set on seeing the Toronto Stock Exchange, but the raucous trading floor had been replaced a few years before by computer banks, so we had to settle for wandering around the underground mall that joins the downtown office towers, and a “business hall of fame” display in BCE Place.

On another visit to Victoria we met the very young and high-energy Oliver, and dined at a second hand walnut table and chair set that Greg was proud of having bought at a good price.  Greg and I enjoyed sharing friendly opinions on politics, while Karilyn and Barbara delved into more important topics. We said our goodbyes and wished them luck with their upcoming IVF appointment.

On our last visit to Tofino we met Madeleine and Emmett, whom Greg was so very proud of.

Greg’s journey on this earth ended much too soon, but hopefully there is consolation in knowing that he persevered in the face of adversity with a smile on his face and love in his heart – despair and downheartedness were simply not in his vocabulary.  He graced all of us who knew him – Greg, it’s been a privilege.




OBITUARY

Gregory Rene Anctil

30 November, 1967 – 10 July, 2021

First Memorial Funeral Services

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