Barry William George Korolyk

It is with deep sorrow that the family announces the peaceful passing of Barry Willam Korolyk with his family by his side at St. Boniface Hospital on February 11, 2025 at the age of 86.

Barry is survived by his loving wife Adele (nee Woodward) with whom he shared 62 wonderful years of love and companionship. Barry is also survived by his three daughters Tracy (Carol Anne), Jodi (Chris) and Lori (Jon), grandson Eric (Meg) and granddaughters Naomi (Jaden), Brie (Russell), as well as many nieces, nephews, and their families.

Barry is predeceased by his parents William and Mary Korolyk, brothers Richard, Don and Dennis, and nephew Ken.

Barry was born on September 22, 1938, and raised in Winnipeg. Barry had fond memories of growing up with his family at their home on Hartford Avenue in West Kildonan, where his lifelong love of gardening and working outdoors started. Barry would help tend to the family garden including growing tomatoes, peas, and raising chickens.

Barry attended West Kildonan Collegiate, enjoyed playing ice hockey, going to the movies, and going on regular fishing trips to Pine Falls, Grand Rapids, and Gimli. In 1957, Barry helped his dad William with building two suites onto their family-owned restaurant on Keewatin Street called Korol’s Lunch, which his mother Mary owned and operated into her 90’s. This commenced the cultivation of Barry’s amazing building and carpentry skills which he would continue to refine and practice for the remainder of his life.

In 1960, Barry began his lifelong career, starting as an electrical apprentice at Schumacher McKenzie. In 1964 Barry started working at Kummen-Shipman where he managed numerous jobs including St. Boniface Hospital, the Law Courts Building, and the Museum of Man and Nature to name a few. In 1990 Barry started working at Mikkelson Coward (Nor-Tec Group) and remained there until his retirement in January 2024, working as a Senior Estimator/Project Manager. Barry secured many important and vast projects for the company due to his experience, including IKEA, True North Square and the Royal Canadian Mint.

Barry was highly talented, passionate and enthusiastic about his work, and was known for his meticulous and excellent skills in estimating. Barry influenced many others in the field and served as a mentor and role model to countless electricians. This included inspiring and guiding his brother in laws Bruce and Ron to also enter the trade.

Barry rarely missed a day of work, and worked well past the average age of retirement, until the age of 85. Barry always enjoyed his work and spoke very positively about it.

Barry was not only an inspiration and role model in his career but was also known for enjoying talking to his coworkers about his family and sharing stories about them. Barry would always leave his colleagues feeling happy, positive and with a smile on their face.

Barry met Adele, the love of his life, and they married in 1963, and moved into their “forever” home on Litz Place in 1968. Throughout the years, Barry used his skills to renovate the home including remodeling and building on additions to accommodate their growing family. Barry loved spending time with his young family, taking his daughters on frequent trips to West Kildonan Park and many bike rides around the neighbourhood. Barry along with Adele loved entertaining, including hosting Christmas dinner for large family gatherings, hosting and organizing a ping pong league and hosting poker/casino nights with family and friends on a regular basis.

Barry loved travelling and took his family to as many places as he could, including several road trips to visit his brother Don in California, Las Vegas, Expo 86 in Vancouver, New York, and later, family trips that included his grandchildren to Florida and the Bahamas. Barry and Adele also extensively travelled to Vancouver, Alaska, Palm Springs, San Fransico, Key West, London, Paris, Rome, Italy, Turkey, Cannes, and of course many trips to Atlanta to visit daughter Tracy.

Barry also loved to ensure his children and grandchildren had the opportunity to travel, and would support them on all their adventures, including trips to Greece, Japan, Germany, Austria, Costa Rica, France, Croatia, and Thailand to name a few. Barry was always very enthusiastic and eager to help plan the trips, flights and loved pouring over maps and researching attractions and flight routes to see where his children or grandchildren were going.

Barry loved to provide any opportunity he could to his wife and children and that included regular summer vacations at Victoria Beach. The family cherished spending time there enjoying bike rides, movies, fishing derbies and of course spending time at the beach. After many summers of renting cabins, and Adele as his inspiration, Barry began to build the family’s own summer cottage at Victoria Beach in 1986.

Barry spent hour upon hour building the family cabin, which entailed clearing the densely treed lot and building the entire structure with little to no assistance. The family was so excited to move in and begin enjoying the cabin that Barry had built them. As the years went by, Barry continued spending any spare time he could travelling to the beach to work on the cabin to build on additions, decks and many ongoing improvements.

The cabin was in full swing every weekend of the summer, filled with family, and there was no place in the world that Barry would rather spend his time. Spring, summer and fall, you would find Barry in his work clothes, working in the yard, planting tomatoes or pulling weeds from the grass.

Barry greatly enjoyed his last summer at Victoria Beach, spending long hours sitting on the deck admiring the gardens, flowers and the yard, playing crib, and welcoming family and neighbours who would show up with their children, delicious food, and guitars on their backs to initiate impromptu gatherings and celebrations.

Barry was a man of many talents and took great pleasures in the simpler things of life, including enjoying a wonderful meal or drinking a fine scotch and smoking a cigar on a warm summer night at the family cabin. Barry loved playing crib, tile rummy, ping pong, pool, poker, blackjack and was especially passionate about playing golf, with many games taking place at the Victoria Beach golf course.

Barry never hesitated to put his electrical, carpentry, plumbing, and landscaping talents to use to help his loved ones especially his three daughters. Barry was constantly spending his time helping all three daughters with any home renovation or repair they requested and was so specially talented at creating and building bedrooms, closets, doorways, bathrooms, decks and fences. Barry’s craftmanship continued to be second to none, and something that he continued to excel at well into his 80’s. Barry even travelled to Atlanta on regular occasions to complete home repairs for daughter Tracy, and was so eager, he would pick up a hammer and begin to work the minute he arrived, not even stopping to unpack his suitcase.

Barry had a special love for his grandchildren, and would never miss a single birthday, recital or sports game. Barry was always there to cheer, applaud, video record, and take photos. Barry loved to display photos of his family including his wife, children and grandchildren, to continue to relish in all his happy memories. Barry never hesitated to make the everyday special for his grandchildren, including building them forts in the snow, setting up tents or making mini golf courses for them at the lake, and spent countless hours taking them on trips to the park, walks, or bike rides.

Barry had a similar impact on all that he met, and many family members and neighbours also looked up to and sought out Barry, seeking out his advice on building projects or other endeavours. Barry always had time to give someone a hand, or some wise advice.

Barry’s biggest love however was for his wife Adele, whom he loved and cherished and spent 62 years of marriage with. Barry enjoyed nothing more than having a wonderful meal made by Adele, and he strived always to make her happy, calling her “honey” and showering her with his affection.

The family would like to thank the WRHA Palliative Care program and case coordinator Lori Penner, and to all the nurses (special thanks to Kija Milinkovic) and home care staff, as their support made it possible for Barry to continue to spend his last months enjoying the comforts of home. An extra thank you to Barry’s caregiver Luciana and other Comforts of Home staff, who took such very good care of him. A special thanks to Gino and Claudia Corona for all their support including check ins, and bringing treats, bubbles and songs to the deck gatherings at the beach.

The family would like to thank Dr. Czaykowski and Dr. St. Godard for their care and compassion.

In accordance with Barry’s wishes, no formal funeral will be held. Instead, cremation has taken place, and a private celebration of life will take place at a later date to honour his memory and the impact he had had on those around him.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Barry’s memory to CancerCare, Manitoba.

Though he is no longer with us, his legacy lives on in the hearts of his loved ones.

You will always be in our thoughts and forever in our hearts. We love you and miss you.