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Verner Alfred, MSM, CD HISDALE

October 1, 2012

HISDALE

Verner Alfred Hisdal died Monday night in his home in Yarrow as he wished. Vern was 79 and struggling with complications from heart disease.

He is survived by his wife of 59 years, Joan Hisdal; his four children: Howard (wife Dana), David (Joanne), Gregory (Katherine) and Connie-Joan (Tiger); 10 grand-children, Scott, Kate, Leah (Rob), Suzanne, Alexander, Elisabeth, Holly, Heather, Anna and Sarah; and one great-grandson, Damien.

Dad grew up near Rocky Mountain House and in Wetaskiwin, Alberta, during the Depression as an only child. At 16 he joined the Canadian Army and served as an infantryman in the Royal Canadian Regiment where he parachuted into the Arctic on a Cold War training exercise. He was released as too young for the Korean War, worked briefly on the oil rigs and then as an orderly at the Ponoka Mental Hospital where he met his wife, Joan, who was working there as a registered nurse.

Dad rejoined the army as a military policeman in the

Canadian Provost Corps. He was posted to London, England, in 1956, and soon after to Germany then back to Canada to Edmonton. He was most proud of his one-year tour of duty in the United Nations Emergency Force in Egypt where on the beach in the Gaza Strip he single-handedly intercepted an illegal arms shipment and earned the Meritorious Service Medal. He also served in Ottawa and Camp Borden in Ontario. His last posting was to Camp Chilliwack where he retired from the Canadian Forces

after 25 years of service at the rank of sergeant. He went on to have another career in the BC Corrections Service at the forest camps in the Chilliwack River Valley where he was a sawmill officer.

Dad always found time to hunt and fish. He liked to hunt moose and grizzly bears as well as mountain sheep and deer. He was an excellent shot and won trophies for his shooting at the Connaught Ranges in Ottawa. He loved dogs and always had one or two around the house. He was also a golfer and active in his community of Yarrow. He served in the Conservative Party Riding Association and was a member of the Legion. He instilled the values of hard work and ambition in all of his children.

The funeral service for Vern Hisdal will be held Saturday afternoon, October 13, 2012, at 1:30 p.m. in St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Chilliwack followed by an internment in the Yarrow Cemetery.



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