Born September 18, 1935 in Blumenort, Ukraine, the oldest child of Henry Sr. and Mary (Derksen). In 1943 the young family began their journey to freedom spending time in Germany and, thanks to MCC, finally landing at Pier 21, Halifax Nova Scotia in 1948. They made their way west and arrived in Chilliwack in October 1948.
Coming to a new country with all their possessions in two trunks and a few suitcases, not knowing the language, Henry showed that determination, hard work and honesty paid off.
Henry met the love of his life, Martha (Marty) Dyck through the Clearbrook MB youth group and church choir and they were married October 1957. They settled in Vancouver for a short time where Henry went to school and then worked as a mechanic. He demonstrated his mechanical prowess by being told to leave mechanic studies early with full credit since they couldn’t teach him anything he didn’t already know.
In 1960 Henry and Marty moved to Clearbrook and opened one of (what was later) 2 Texaco stations in the Clearbrook/Abbotsford area. His work ethic, honesty and German language skills quickly secured numerous local resident and business customers.
Henry was involved in many ways in the community. He sponsored several divisions of winning softball teams and was involved in the Clearbrook Chamber of Commerce, Boards of both MEI and Clearbrook Water Works to name a few.
Throughout his life, semi-retirement and final retirement, Henry was always busy. If it wasn’t work, he was tending to their beautiful garden or travelling; Mexico, winters in Palm Springs, Europe, Africa and several river\ocean cruises. In the last few years he could routinely be found at one of the local Tim Hortons having coffee with friends.
Henry was predeceased by two infant siblings, one grandchild (Danny), his parents (Henry and Mary) and more recently his brother (Helmut) and sister-in-law (Wendy). He is lovingly remembered by his wife of 63 years, Marty, children Terry (Beverly), Dan, Zena (Barry) DeFehr, 9 grandchildren and 5 great grandchildren.
In lieu of flowers, donations could be made to BC Children’s Hospital Foundation, ALS Society of Canada, MS Society of Canada or Parkinsons Canada.
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