Les died peacefully with family by his side at his home on the afternoon of June 16, 2021. He will be sorely missed by his daughter, Beverly Irene Faloon (Peter), and son, Gregory Lester Duckett (Kate Reed), his 5 grandsons, Kyle (Julia), Jonathan (Jen), Christopher (Zoe), Owen, Graeme, and 3 great grandsons, Truman, Franklin, and Hugo. His only surviving sister and brother-in-law Mabel and Ron Davis live in Calgary, Alberta. He had many special nieces and nephews he held dear, who live across Canada.
Les was second youngest of 6 children born to Bertha B. (Headrick) and Archie M. Duckett. He grew up on a prairie homestead near Piapot, Saskatchewan attending his early school years at Keely Springs and then Piapot Public School. He was a student at SAIT in Calgary, Alberta, when he met the love of his life, Irene Lena Kniss. Les earned his Diploma in Electrical Technology in 1952, and Les and Irene were married in June of that same year.
After Les graduated, he and Irene moved to The Dalles, Oregon, USA, but moved back to Canada to be close to relatives when they began their own family. They had a long and loving marriage of 54 years until Irene passed away in October of 2006. Along the way, they lived in Olds, Red Deer, and Calgary, moving for the final time, to Victoria, BC in 1982. They enjoyed entertaining the many wonderful friends they met on their adventures, and the many close family members who came to visit them at the coast during the snow months to see the spring flowers. They both loved to entertain, and especially loved it when family came to visit.
Loving and supporting family and friends, dealing with others with honesty and integrity, helping others whenever he could, these were closely held values for Les. He always had goals, and plans to achieve them: along his life path (always had a 5 year plan) he was a farmer; electrical, plumbing, and heating contractor; started the 1st Olds Scout Group; was an investor and entrepreneur in several small businesses; and was the founder and president of Petro-Well Libraries, a successful North American company that developed an oil-well data system based on the new microfilm technology of the time. After developing and nurturing this business, he sold it and retired, focusing then on real-estate investment, mainly in Fairfield, Victoria, BC.
Les was a wonderful loving husband and father to his children, and was devoted to the success of the future generations of his family. His passing has left a huge hole that will not be easily filled, even with years of treasured memories of happy, sad, proud, exciting, eye opening, ever changing, tough and wonderful times spent with him. We were lucky to have had Dad in our lives.
What will we remember about our father?
His wavy hair, his smile, his voice, his big hugs, his advice, his jokes, his interest in what was going on around him and love for his family and what each grandson and great grandson was up to and what lay ahead for each one of them. He had high hopes for all.
Your family will miss you Dad!
Last, but not least, we want to thank the Berwick Royal Oak staff and Dr. Ted Rosenberg for their care and attention during the final days of dad’s journey.
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