Bryce Alan McQuillan

It is with deep sadness we share that Bryce Alan McQuillan passed away suddenly at Foothills Hospital in Calgary just before Christmas at the age of 82. Bryce will be lovingly remembered and sadly missed by his wife Susan MacAlister and his sisters Marian McDowell (Sam), Helen Gurney and Leona McQuillan and the widespread McQuillan family and his friends & neighbours.

Bryce was the youngest of twelve children; born to Dorothy E. and Robert J. McQuillan on Vancouver Island. The McQuillan family had pioneered in the Comox Valley. He grew up in the 40’s & 50’s on the farm in Courtenay. He learned to be self sufficient following the modelling of his father and mother as they raised their large family. He learned while young to fish, to hunt game, gather wild berries and seafood and work in the garden. His favourite breakfast memory was a venison steak or a fresh trout tossed in the frypan. His sisters remember Bryce at 6 with older brother Warren following their Dad around, trying to copy him as he worked… learning basic carpentry and even following him up a ladder on to the roof. Always fascinated with how machines worked, by 10, he had taken apart his mom’s radio to look inside and fixed a broken phonograph to working order again. Summers were spent by the ocean at the family beach cabin with an older sister in charge of the younger kids.

Bryce did well in school & led an active life; basketball, track & field and clubs like Mechanics. He attended UBC & worked different jobs in the summers i.e. butchering. His sisters Alma Linton & Marion McDowell lived near and he stayed with their families on weekends and summer breaks. He graduated in 1966 with his B.SC in Science, Geology as a major. His education & interests led him to move away from the Island after university to see something of the world. One favourite summer job was spent on horseback working for the Geological Survey of Canada and he later toured Europe & England with a friend. In 1970, an overseas contract as a geophysicist took him to Melbourne.

After working 2 years in Australia and exploring New Zealand, he returned to Imperial Oil Ltd. in Edmonton & later transferred to Calgary. This was followed by 10+ years working with Mobile Oil. He enjoyed living in Calgary as a young professional with the opportunities provided by the “oil patch”; an active outdoor lifestyle, Mobile social club activities, curling & skiing clubs & making lifelong friends. He was an avid skier & volunteer Ski Patroller at Sunshine Mt. His work took him all over Alberta, the Yukon and north to the Arctic Circle. Upgrading courses allowed him to earn his scuba license to study undersea rock formations in the Caribbean & later desert rocks in New Mexico. He curled with Calgary Petroleum Curling Club for years, playing & helping organize tournaments, including the 1980 Briar. His brother Murray had volunteered as an RCAF pilot during the war (shot down in 1945) and Bryce earned his pilot’s license as well. He and a close friend Rick Martsolf bought a Cessna 182 small plane and a 2 seat glider. They joined a group of like-minded gliding enthusiasts in SAGA, (Southern Alberta Gliding Association) and could be found summer weekends with their families camping along the Oldman River near Lundbreck & Crowsnest Pass gliding the “ mountain wave currents”.

In 1982, he and Susan met and bought a house together, later marrying. She was a teacher and actively involved in her professional life as he took on a new position in Frontier Exploration at Dome Petroleum. They travelled together on school holidays; scuba dived in Fiji, camping trips along Washington & Oregon Coasts, Yellowstone & California and visiting Dallas (where Rick & his wife Paulette were transferred). In 1986 Bryce and Susan were married in Las Vegas. Then in 1988 Dome Petroleum shut down suddenly and laid off its entire workforce. Bryce was out of work for months and exploration jobs were scarce.

Once again, his willingness to work overseas earned him another opportunity, this time in Libya. So Susan and Bryce rented out their house in Calgary and he went off to work in the Libyan desert. Meanwhile Susan completed a Master’s degree in England and returned to work in Calgary. While with Sirte Oil Co. Bryce lived in Marsa al-Brega on the Mediterranean, in a company compound of trailers along with a contingent of other ex-pats who soon became friends. He worked a 3-1 month rotation contract. The next 5 years gave Bryce frequent international flights to Malta, Frankfurt & Tunisia, he toured Roman ruins in Libya and Morocco, had many desert adventures, and was able to travel with Susan thru the UK, Spain, Portugal & Gibraltar during breaks.

By 2001, Bryce was back in Calgary, weary of travel & happy to be living in his own home again. He joined K.C. Waunch Petroleum Consultants and began working as a well site geologist in BC & Alberta. He enjoyed that self employed lifestyle until 2015, finally closing his company & retiring to join already retired Susan. In his final years, they enjoyed winter vacations in Hawaii & Mexico and usually a month in Palm Springs for the golf, often sharing a condo with family members. Their annual road trips thru the Rockies to see family on Vancouver Island was a highlight. They looked forward to visiting everyone and any McQuillan family gatherings at the Kye Bay beach house in Comox.

Bryce will be remembered as very quiet, a bit serious and a man of few words. He enjoyed the laughter & conversation of others, but he just preferred to be the listener and let others talk. But to those who knew him well, he also was a quietly caring and capable man and a reliable brother, friend, neighbour and partner. He listened & shared his thoughts carefully and his wit was often subtle and wry. Bryce was a lifelong self-learner, always curious and interested in the natural world. His life journey reveals the wide range of his interests. He wasn’t afraid to try something new. He never lost his desire to figure out how things work or his ability to fix them. For a quiet man, he lived a full and interesting life. His presence in our lives will be missed.

Bryce was predeceased by his father Robert (1976), his mother Dorothy (1993) and eight of his siblings: Murray (1945), Edwin (2011), Eleanor Petterson (2018), Vi Stranberg (2022), Alma Linton (2023), Doreen Cooper (2024), Warren McQuillan (2025), and Darrell McQuillan (2025).

A Celebration of Life will be held for Bryce at 2:00 pm on March 19, 2026, at South Calgary Funeral Centre (12700 Macleod Trail S, Calgary, AB, T2J 7E5).

Condolence messages to the family can be left with Dignity Memorial South Calgary at southcalgaryfuneralcentre.ca.

Cards and letters can be sent c/o Susan to South Calgary FC at the address above.