Obituary of George Bramley

George Arthur Bramley was born at James River, north of Sundre, Alberta. George was the 2nd youngest of 4 children born to Joseph and Clara Bramley, who both came from England.  George was the only boy which made him extra special.

George married Alice Madge in Sundre.  They became residents of Sundre, then Peace River, Houston, Edmonton, Calgary, an acreage at Langdon Corner, back in Calgary (Dalhousie), until they built a home in Chestermere on 20 acres.  Then bought a farm west of Didsbury and raised cattle on the 1/4 section.  Then moved to an acreage east of Indus, and most recently at Hillview Estates in Strathmore.

George and Alice raised 2 children, Michael and Beth in Chestermere and also had a special bond with nephew Randy Peters and his wife Royal.

George was employed as a young boy running the projector at the Sundre Movie Theatre and as a clerk at the Sundre Hardware Store.  As a young man George started working in seismic with Shell Canada then as a Geophysicist with Magnatrace, Digitech, CDP, Pacific Petroleum Company, then retired from Petro Canada after 40 years in the oil industry. George belonged to the Canadian Society of Exploration Geophysicists (CSEG). One of George's greatest achievements was discovering oil in Yutikama. George was the first to discover oil in that region. He had a true gift for discovering oil with a 98% success rate at Petro Canada.

When Alice was a girl, she used to spy on George while he was outside washing his car, a black and white 1957 Plymouth with a turquoise interior. George always had the nicest and cleanest cars and trucks. He and best friend Roy both shared a love of cars. Later on, while dating Alice, George liked going to nice restaurants.  Ali remembers going to The Caroliner in downtown Calgary, going to plays, movies, tobogganing, and cross country skiing with George.

Ali was attracted to George because he was kind and well respected in the community of Sundre by both his peers and by the adults. They also enjoyed science and Ali remembers their dating discussions on science, electricity, and lightening, enjoying their similar interests of dogs, outdoors, earth, and science. George enjoyed Alice's sister's husband, Al Peters, father of nephew Randy Peters.  Mike remembers going with his Dad and Uncle Al on a boy's excursion and shooting cannons to bring down avalanches safely.  Al had been trained by Canadian Armed Forces to shoot down avalanches.  Al was the superintendent of Kootenay National Park and that led to many interesting excursions for our family.

George also had great success and fun witching for water wells. He was asked by many friends and family including his son as he was skillful at discovering water wells.

When George wasn't working, he was outdoors with Alice, building up their beautiful acreages and farms, planting trees, clearing trees, bush, harrowing, baling, picking rocks, building horse barns, shelters, and fixing anything.  George really enjoyed haying and combining.  George loved to build, adding additions, doing home improvements and mechanical repairs and shared his knowledge with his children.

He loved playing with his children, catch, family card games, crokinole, horseshoes, bocce ball, croquet, canoeing, camping, fishing, hiking mountains, cross country skiing, snowshoeing with Al, Marg and Randy Peters. One trip canoeing down the Big Red (Red Deer River), George and Mike hit white water and sank the canoe while both were still sitting in it.

On work day evenings, our family would go regularly "around the loop" on horseback. Later, we would stay at equestrian campgrounds in the foothills or in the mountains, "breaking trail", jumping over logs, crossing creeks lifting our legs onto the horses necks to cross wider, deeper rivers.  It was incredible and always an adventure, with George leading and being adamant that we were never lost.

George and Ali spent time training and playing with their many horses and other animals, all were their pets. Even a calf fondly given the name "Surprise" as it was born, too early on Christmas day.  George was strong and fit and it was common to see him carry a calf across the yard.  George also cattle penned and competitive trail rode.  He and Ali rode horses in parades for many years with their friends Joann and Gerry.

George's love of being outdoors started in Sundre as a boy.  He would leave early in the day to go fishing and exploring and would always be back by supper time. Fishing is how he met his wife Alice, who he lovingly called Ali Blue.  Both George and Ali's parents were friends that fished together.  Both George and Ali's parents retired on Vancouver island and spent early mornings on the ocean fishing or off the wharf.  One of our family's memories was Beth catching a purple shark to everyone's surprise.

There were many fond family memories of following George upriver.  He knew and taught us how to find good fishing holes and would not spend long at one spot.  He would cast 3 or 4 times and if there were no bites, he would keep moving upstream.  He especially loved catching brown trout.

Eating outdoors on the back deck at Chestermere, with a view of the mountains, eating fresh vegetables and fruit from the garden was one of our favourite family pleasures.

George and Ali regularly went for walks along the canal behind their house near Indus, where they would see wildlife, especially birds.  Owls, hawks, doves, deer and moose were frequently sighted.

George was also an artist, he was a natural at drawing and painting with an aesthetic and artistic eye.

George loved music both live and recorded and played the trumpet.  He enjoyed listening to semi Classical and contemporary Classical, Jazz, saxophone, trumpet, and later enjoyed listening to Willie Nelson's Roadhouse. He liked Kenny Rogers, Tom Jones, Al Hurt, and Herb Alpert to name a few artists in their large record collection. George and Alice were also members of the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra from 1969 until 2 years ago. 

George had a love of gadgets and toys.  George loved bringing back toy guns for Randy from Houston, and George loved playing with them just as much as Randy.  His most recent gadget was a drone.

One Christmas, Beth and Garner played a joke on George by placing clues starting on George's chore coat which led him outside to a ladder propped up against the house which he had to climb to find his gift which was tied to the chimney which restarted his past hobby of making his own wine.  He even made the wine for his daughter's wedding.  Everyone loved "Daddy's wine".

George was referred to as "Poppa" by grandchildren Cadence and Chazz.  He adored his grandchildren and loved attending all of their music concerts and school academic and athletic award days.  Poppa was very proud of his grandchildren and their accomplishments, he would always seek out and talk to the school principal whenever he had the opportunity so he could talk about his grandkids.  His grandchildren loved playing slap with their Poppa.

George was an avid sports fan, he loved hockey, especially the young guys (the World Juniors).  He loved watching CFL Football, both at home and live games with Ali as Stamps season ticket holders, then later on with his daughter, her husband and grandkids. He also loved playing and watching golf and attended the Shaw Charity Classic at the Canyon Meadows Golf & Country Club with his close friend and golfing partner Charlie.

George coached his son Mike in hockey at Chestermere and also enjoyed watching Beth play on her hockey team as goalie.  Later he enjoyed watching his grandchildren, Cadence and Chazz's, minor hockey games for many seasons. George was very active, athletic, and competitive.  He would often win at horseshoes, bean bag toss, croquet, and "500" at The Rocks farm at family gatherings.  He enjoyed shooting air pistols and 0.22 rifles at targets.

George and Ali travelled to England, Hawaii, Mexico, Costa Rica, Belize, Columbia, Guatemala, Cuba, Panama, and in September they thoroughly enjoyed an Alaskan cruise touring above ground pipelines, mines and saloons.  When travelling with friends, George was always the first through security and would be way ahead of everybody.  They always tried to figure out how he managed it.  They very much enjoyed camping and travelling with Charlie and Joan and going on bus trips with The Indus Livewires.

George and Charlie were members and golfed weekly at Oxbow Country Golf Course and shared a lot of laughs there.

George was president of the Indus Livewires. He instructed youth at the Indus Curling Club, to help them become more interested in the sport of curling.

George loved playing games and reading suspense novels on his iPad.  His favourite authors were Clive Cussler and Wilbur Smith.  Gold panning always interested him and he had his own gold pans.  He talked a lot about the Lost Lemon Mine and Canadian diamonds in the NWT.  He, along with a group of 3 other guys, took his camper and went panning for gold in South East BC for a month.  They did not come home rich.

George is described by his friends as a kidder with a dry sense of humour, was honest and when he said something, he meant it.  Whenever he was asked to join his buddies, he was always game.

George was positive, kind and gentle and loved to be around others.  He loved to tease and always had interesting information or stories to share.  George taught us many things, he showed us how to live a full, interesting life, and spending time outdoors enjoying everything nature has to offer.  George was interested in everything with a great love for life and he would get excited about almost anything.

George (Poppa), will always be lovingly remembered and dearly missed by his wife Ali, married 58 years and by his family: Son Michael, grandchildren Dallas and Dakota; Daughter Beth, son-in-Law Garner Meszaros, grandchildren Cadence and Chazz; Special nephew Randy Peters and wife Royal; George's oldest sister Barbara (George Weinrich) and her children Phyllis, Faye, Donald (deceased), Jack, Judy, Clara, Neil, Beatrice, and Josie; George's 2nd oldest sister Josie (Bill) and her children Jocelyn and Joe; George's youngest sister Hazel (Ken) and their children Dale, Rick, and Debbie; and by his dear friends Joan and Charlie Bates, Gerry Wilson and many others who George enjoyed spending time with.

We love you George, Dad, Poppa, Uncle.  Your incredible zest for life lives on in all of us for which we are forever grateful.  It's not good-bye, it's see you later.

On Tuesday, January 8, 2019, an informal gathering and viewing will be held at WHEATLAND FUNERAL HOME (202 Lakeside Blvd. Strathmore) at 5:30-7:30 pm.  In lieu of flowers, donations may be made directly to the Salvation Army, 3720 - 19 Ave SE, Calgary, Alberta  T2B 0A9.

On Wednesday, January 8, 2019, a brief graveside service will be held at SUNDRE CEMETERY at 2:00 pm.