Obituary of DAVID F. REESE

DAVID F. REESE

August 3, 1943 - September 2, 2021

LIFE OF DAVID F. REESE

David was born August 3^rd, 1943, the only child born in the Presbyterian Hospital in Bonnyville, Alberta on that day. He spent the first eight years in Deadwood in the Peace Country area of Alberta, on his parents’ farm until they separated, and he moved to Edmonton with his mother and two sisters, leaving his brother behind with their father and uncle.

David attended King Edward Park School and graduated from Bonnie Doon High School in Edmonton. He applied to be a police officer and fireman at his mother’s insistence and when asked why he wanted to be a fireman or police officer during interviews, always answered that his mother made him do it. As a consequence, his mother and stepfather threw him out of the family home. Off he went to Grande Prairie, where he moved in with his aunt Murial and uncle Mac and their many children still living at home. He joined his cousins and worked in a sawmill for a while and then the group were employed pouring concrete basements. Eventually he headed home to Edmonton and became a construction labourer until he met an older gentleman who convinced him that he was too smart to be a labourer and David started looking for a job as an Apprentice Electrician.

As a first-year electrical apprentice, David was sent out to do some work for a farmer. He placed the metal ladder against the telephone pole and up he went, finally putting his hand on the high wire at the top of the pole. Fortunately, the farmer had turned his tractor in the field across the road and saw David fly off the ladder! The farmer raced to David and realized his heart had stopped and applied the old-fashioned CPR and got David’s heart started again. He put David in the car and rushed him to the hospital in Edmonton where he was put into isolation.  Eventually David lost his right thumb and his hand was skin-grafted onto his stomach. A few months later, he met his wife-to-be Sharon who had moved in with her aunt and cousin across the street.

That was October 22^nd, 1967 and they were married in Edmonton February 10^th, 1968. In July of 1970, a daughter, Jennifer Jean was born so they decided to build a house in Sherwood Park, near Edmonton. Robert Simeon came along on March 16, 1973 to complete the family.

A few years after Rob’s arrival, the family moved to Wembley, Alberta, a few miles from Grande Prairie where David began working with his cousins again. Eventually he started his own electrical company and the family lived quite happily on their quarter section until the boom went bust in Alberta.

At that point, employment was hard to come by but a gentleman Sharon had met in Winnipeg at her stepfather’s funeral phoned and offered David a job with Air Canada in Winnipeg so the family moved back to where Sharon was born and raised. Both parents went to work at Air Canada - David at the Maintenance Base and Sharon downtown. Eventually they bought a house and lived there ever since.

The children grew up, married, divorced, widowed, and remarried as all families do but David and Sharon stayed together for fifty-four and a half years until David passed away in September 2021. They fought through the bad times and laughed through the good times, always together.

David was a man of many hobbies. He always kept fish but picked up one hobby until he got sick of it and then went on to another… from small car track racing to railroading to hunting big game to rifle competitions to handgun competitions, but his favourite was shooting gophers and he excelled at that because it was such a challenge.

Masonic Lodge Empire 127 is where David made most of his friendships in Winnipeg, where he enjoyed being, and taking part in and helping with events. With his Masonic Brothers, he went to Wyoming and shot an antelope, which was very tasty, shot gophers in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, and assisted his Brothers with their own projects.

He was extraordinarily proud of his children – the ever-independent daughter Jen, and the Journeyman sheet metal worker and successful stock car racing son Rob, and he would brag about them to anyone who would mention their names. The three of them were rebuilding his beloved 1952 Chevy pick-up truck together and it’s almost finished. He wanted to drive it just once before he died but that wasn’t to be.

David passed peacefully in his sleep on September 2^nd, 2021 at the age of 78. Although he’s gone now, he will always be remembered by those who knew him, and be loved and missed by his family.

Predeceased by both parents (Edith and Palmer) and older brother Peter, David is survived by his wife Sharon (nee Brown), daughter Jennifer and son Robert (Diane), two sisters Carolyn (Jerry) Scheunemann and Joan (Bob) Hodgson, nieces and nephews, as well as many great-nieces and great-nephews.