Obituary of Howard James HUXTED

HUXTED, Howard James December 11, 1928 – September 17, 2015 Howard grew up on the family farm at Maple Creek Saskatchewan, until the age of 15. At this time, Howard left the farm with the neighbour boy and caught a freight train to Lethbridge, looking for work. They soon found themselves out of money and food. The boys found a dead calf, skinned it, and sold the hide to get enough money to rent a room and have a meal. After resting for a day, they went to the employment office and applied to be truck drivers, as they didn’t want to farm anymore. The employment officer took one look at them and knew they were farm boys, so he sent them to a farm near High River to stook grain (currently known as combining). For the next few years, Howard worked on farms all over Alberta before coming to Strathmore. During the 1950’s, he worked for M & M Drilling and spent the next 20 plus years drilling water wells and going north doing seismograph. In 1950, while working in the Wetaskiwin area, Howard met Harriet, and later married in 1951. The oldest child, Brian came along in 1952, followed by Kenny in 1955. Before Howard permanently settled back in Strathmore to raise his family, he lived in Leduc, Wetaskiwin and several other small communities and rounded out the family with Colin born in 1959 and Teresa born in 1964. Howard continued to work with M & M drilling except for a short stint with Grays excavating and the Town of Strathmore public works. He then decided to venture out on his own, at which time he set up a vacuum truck, which he worked for many years. After selling his vac truck and retiring for a few years, he decided he wasn’t quite ready for the leisure life. He then purchased 2 gravel trucks, a bobcat and backhoe which he used on a job for the construction and twinning of Highway #1. When Howard decided he had enough of the gravel truck business, he was asked by mayor, Tom Gray, to help Strathmore with the residential garbage contract. After a few years of this, Howard and Harriet started travelling south to Yuma for the winters, leaving the family to look after things. In 1990 Howard retired completely, as this allowed him to setup and sell many acreages. They moved from 4th ave to the corner of hwy # 564 at Nightingale and moved on a mobile home. Years later, Howard decided he needed a shop, so he put the acreage up for sale and bought the property at manderly sod, where he added living quarters to the shop. In 1999, Howard suffered his first stroke in Las Vegas. This led to the sale of the acreage and moving to the Nightingale area once again, where family could help out. Howard and Harriet lived there together until Harriet’s passing in October of 2002. Howard continued to live in the Nightingale home until his move to the Wheatland Lodge in January of 2013. While living in the Lodge, Howard befriended Alice Nichol, who became a very special friend. They were inseparable from the day they met. Up until the last few weeks, Howard was known for his pranks and jokes. Howard suffered a heart attack which led to his passing. Howard was predeceased by his wife of 50 years, Harriet; mother Mable; father James; sister Joyce; son Brian; Grandson Brian Jr; and Great granddaughter Lincoln. Howard is survived by his sisters Irene Murray and Elsie (Milton) Henry; brothers Melvin (Charmaine) Huxted and Gordon Huxted; children Ken Huxted (Terry), Colin (Bonnie) Huxted, Teresa (Neil) Fuchs; daughter in law Linda Lothian; grandchildren Heather (Alex) Day, Rosemarie (Scott) Morrison, Laurel (John) Ferraz, Sean Michaels, Cody (Christine) Huxted, Kimberly (Graham) Fitzsimmons, Jamie Huxted, Lindsay Huxted (Cody), Kayla (Gordon) Davidson, Christopher Fuchs (Pauline); and great grandchildren Cymantha Lee, Natasha Anne, Seth, Holden, Shayana, Aryela, Kyle, Jaken, Blakelyn, Leah, and Damien. A funeral service will be held on Friday, September 25, 2015 at Hope Community Covenant Church at 2:00 p.m. To send condolences, please click the link below. Send Condolences