George Richard Walsh

Our father was a brilliant man, so brilliant that he may possibly be the smartest person I will ever have had the honour of knowing, really knowing. Our father lived his life with honor and respect. He had a loyalty to fairness that rivaled most others. He was always about doing the “right” thing even if that meant losing a dream job or some valued friendships along the way. The way he lived will always serve as a talisman in my own life. I will always question my decisions as “is this fair?” Although the man we knew as Dad has been gone for quite some time it is still hard to imagine life without his guidance.

George was a successful businessman and accomplished almost everything he wanted to professionally. He had a rewarding military career which catapulted him into a prosperous engineering career in the oil and gas sector here in Alberta. He went onto a mediation and consulting business and was achingly lucrative in the stock market. To quote one of mine and his favorite artists “he knew when to hold em and he knew when to fold em”.

Our Father was a very hardworking man. His career was very important to him and everyone knew it. He had a work ethic that rivaled Warren Buffet. We were very proud of our father and everything that he accomplished. He came from a broken family and built a career out of almost nothing. He taught me a lot about hard work. He had very few good male role models growing up and we will always be grateful to him for breaking a cycle and paving the way so that my sisters and I and subsequently our children could have the lives that we do. We will be forever grateful and forever love him for that.

If you knew Dad at all, you knew he loved to golf. Now most people say they love to golf, but Dad, well he took it to a new level. Sometimes he golfed as much as 75 games a year. He loved being a member at Silver Springs and although it is hard for me to say, they saw him a great deal more than we did. My husband Gary would often come home from golfing with him and say that he had the best game with Dad, and I had to remind him that golf was serious to Dad so it was probably because he hadn’t had three beers by the 9th hole.

Dad also had a funny side, most people would say he was serious, but he could pull it out when he wanted to. At my wedding, he and I were standing waiting for them to open the doors of the church for the “walk down the aisle”; and he turned to me and said “are you sure?” I asked what he meant and he said that he had parked out front, we could make a run for it.

I do think he had to maintain some sort of humour in our house, as most of the men here can attest to, he lived in a house full of women. Poor guy even the dog was female.

He also had a few quirks that not too many knew. As you will see from looking around there are jube jubes and coca cola. He loved Coca cola (never give him a Pepsi by the way) loved it so much that when they changed the recipe to the “new coke” he actually wrote the company in complaint, addressed to the CEO of course.

He loved candy, licorice, allsorts, peanuts, cashews but most of all jube jubes. Mom would berate him for having them around as she did not want us girls eating a bunch of junk food, so he got in the habit of stashing them all around the house. It’s a habit he never got out of, even at the end I would find them in drawers and what not. It is a habit, I hate to say that has passed down a generation. We girls can’t get enough of them. As a matter of fact, I know that my sister Ellie cannot get on a plane without a bag of Swedish berries stashed somewhere. It is comfort food at its finest. And my sister Laura, well she got it the worst. You will rarely find her without her stash, she smuggles them like some kind of Mexican drug lord. When you ask her for a handful, my every generous sister will give you three. Her definition of handful and my definition of handful are clearly different, but I overlook it as truly it is her one vice.

Dad leaves behind 5 wonderful and dear grandchildren. My nephew Renner was his birthday gift as they share the same birthday. He will live on through them. They are his legacy. He was so proud of each and every one of them. I had lunch with him at Silver Springs when Gracie was a few months old, he stopped everyone he knew and introduced her. I didn’t dare mention he failed to introduce me.

It is so hard to sum up the life of a man who lived it to the best of his being. Who believed in honesty and fairness above all else. So I will end this now with saying that you have been gone from here for just 10 days, but I believe that you are probably on your 10th game and around the 3rd or 4th hole by now. Golf well Dad. Stay well. Your legacy will live on as I am a good person because of you and I believe in honesty and fairness and I will pass that down. You will never be forgotten by myself or your people that come after you.

Much love always. Your girls.

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George Richard Walsh passed away peacefully on Saturday, September 6, 2014, in Calgary, AB after a courageous battle with Parkinson’s disease at the age of 74 years.

George is predeceased by his wife of 38 years, Frances Cecilia (Kelly) Walsh, who passed away in November, 2002 and his mother, Elizabeth Heinz, who passed away in December, 2012. He is survived by his daughters, Ellen (Carter) Siebens, Laura (Ali Chaudhry) Walsh, and Christa (Gary) Sterkenburg; as well as five grandchildren: Renner Siebens, Dylan Chaudhry, Dane Siebens, Taryn Siebens and Grace Sterkenburg. George is also survived by two sisters, Shirley Mulligan and Mary Ellen Franklin, both of Vancouver, BC. He was born in Peterborough, ON on December 20, 1939 and was the second of four children. George was known for his work ethic and he began a very long and successful working life with a paper route at age 15. He graduated from Western Canada High School in Calgary in 1957, after which he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force where he was a Construction Engineering Officer eventually attaining the rank of Flight Lieutenant. He attended the University of Alberta where he received his BSc in Civil Engineering in 1962 and a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Queen’s University in 1968. George achieved a high level of career success within the oil and gas industry including Shell Canada (1968-1981) and Alberta Natural Gas Company Ltd. (1981-1989). He eventually ran his own consulting business until his retirement. George had many passions in his life, but none matched his love of golf. He was an active member of Silver Springs Golf Club from 1986-2012, where he would play up to 75 games a year. Whether it was travelling with his wife Fran, playing golf or curling at the Calgary Curling Club, George had a sense of adventure. His family and friends will always remember George as someone you could rely on, where his word meant everything.

A Celebration of George’s Life will be held at FOSTER’S GARDEN CHAPEL, 3220 – 4 Street N.W., Calgary (across from Queen’s Park Cemetery) for close friends and family, with a reception to follow at FOSTER’S GARDEN CHAPEL, on Tuesday, September 16 at 10:00 a.m. The family would like to thank all the staff and doctors at Carewest Garrison Green for making George’s final days full of compassion and care. In lieu of flowers please feel free to send a donation to the University of Alberta at www.giving.ualberta.ca. Expressions of sympathy may be forwarded to the family via the website www.fostersgardenchapel.ca.

FOSTER'S GARDEN CHAPEL

FUNERAL HOME AND CREMATORIUM

Telephone: 403-297-0888

Honoured Provider of Dignity Memorial