Obituary of Robert Harris

Robert Dale Harris passed away at the Lloydminster Hospital on Monday, December 2, 2013 at the age of 54 years. Donations in Robert's memory may be made to the Lloydminster Exhibition Junior Beef Program or to the Canadian Junior Angus Association. Eulogy A letter to my man. Well babe, I tried to write your eulogy, I even asked for help from the rest of your family, but when it came down to it I just couldn't write it. So instead I decided to write you a letter. We've had the experience of holding our girls as they were born and now our grandkids and I can't imagine the anxiety your mom and dad would have felt when you entered the world 3 months ahead of schedule on November 19, 1959. As a young boy growing up on the farm with cows and horses to chase and ride, crops to run through and bush to explore and wildlife to hunt, trap, and skin. You developed a passion for Agriculture. As you grew you found sports like curling and basketball captivated your interest, but not your passion. The opportunity to grow under the 4-H motto of "learning to do by doing" is where you started to ignite a flame that burned to your core. Your membership in 4-H Beef dove-tailed into counseling, exchange trips across Canada, involvement at the regional and provincial councils. You started to fine-tune your leadership skills by being the president of the provincial council and developed so many life long friends through that. But it also created a huge desire to pass your knowledge onto the youth as the adults around you had done for you. Then came the carousing years. I think I'm grateful I heard the stories later. How Ralph Klinke survived the escapades that you, Mike Bertrand and Vern Joa took him on still amazes me. The trip you took to Oklahoma to the Quarter Horse show, I know, it was supposed to be the rodeo. Who knew they would move it to Vegas that year? You and the gray Chev with the purple stick shift spent a lot of time touring. Surprise trips out to BC to visit the cousins, down to Cut Knife to chase girls, ….. Spontaneity and a certain degree of fearlessness seemed to be a natural part of you. But the truck was spending more and more time pulling a horse trailer as you helped build and develop the Deer Creek Riding and Roping Arena. You and Mike spent a fair amount of time team roping chasing the allusive High Point trophy, but you got it. Dedo had sparked your interest in carpentry. Even though the U of S campus thought you were a student there because of the consistent attendance at the weekend social events, you were registered in the Apprentice program for carpentry. Dedo had taught you a lot and your amazing ability to judge distance and estimate measurements were honed. I know, as soon as that lady had you move the same wall 4 times, because she couldn't make up her mind you decided that was enough and went back to farming with your dad. Your carpentry skills came in handy when you decided to build our house by yourself. Then Larry Brack, an old 4-H friend talked you into going to Agribition to help with his Holstein herd. So many times you told the story of making a little bale corral for the little Holstein calf that had been born and how the school kids were so excited to see it. That was about the time we met. You lived in St. Walburg, I experienced Crafty's Quonset parties and started to meet your family. Then there was Grandpa England's birthday party. Birthday party? Cars were lined up ½ way down the ½ mile laneway. The yard was packed with vehicles. It looked like a mid-size used car lot! People of every age were everywhere and then you said it was just your aunts, uncles and cousins! We got married on the hottest day of the summer and helped break the record for the most weddings in one day in Lloydminster in 1983. Mike surprised us with a horse and carriage at the church and we teased your dad that we could time the pictures by the progression of how red his forehead had gotten as the sun moved through the day. You were so excited when I told you I was pregnant with Dalynn. I was wondering what I had gotten myself into. That same thought crossed my mind when I came home from work and you announced that you had brought supper home. I hadn't yet learned to recognize the really quick glint in your eye when there was more to the story. No, I did not expect to see a full deer carcass on the kitchen table with meat grinder right beside it and the announcement that we were making deer sausage! When we moved to Islay, you met up with Bill Creech and the trips to Agribition continued. Bill talked to you about the Red Angus and you started to think! We started the herd with 23 young females and 20 some years later had 200 purebred cows. You had offers to increase the herd by developing other breeds, but stayed true to the reds. By the time we dispersed, we had shown cattle from Salmon Arm BC to Barrie Ont. You had sold bulls, semen, embryos and live cattle across Canada, to the States, Denmark, and Germany. You were proudest, however, of selling bulls to your neighbors and friends and at the same time having complete strangers phoning you up to buy a bull sight unseen. I still am amazed at the in-depth conversations you, Danny Warrilow, Bill, or Rob Holowaychuk would have about a sire or set of genetics to discover that you were talking about a bull you had seen 5-10 years earlier. Your memory for cattle and pedigrees was amazing. Andrew Convey and Gerald Martin had come for coffee and shared an idea of having a bull sale with the three different breeds. You got outnumbered when we voted to use a drawing that Barry Kantel had drawn of you from a picture I had taken as the catalog cover. I am not sure you ever got used to it. Then there were the days when you were a director of the Exhibition Association. I know how much you enjoyed the meetings and the all the committees you were involved with. Our girls grew up in the buildings. We enjoyed the feeling of letting the girls experience a little bit of freedom knowing around every corner there were another set of eyes watching the kids and we would hear if anything went askew. I still remember the shocked look that Marty Earl and I exchanged when we finally recognized the movements of the coyote and beaver (mascot costumes). It was our husbands who were crashing the midway party at the fair! All that energy couldn't be contained in the winter. Curling and bonspielling in Islay seemed to take some of the edge off….or not. John Marie and the stories of the Swamp probably need to be left there! The country-dance club we were in. I know I had to do some fast-talking to get you to agree to do an exhibition at the Lloyd Mall. As the kids got older and got involved in things, you were coaching ringette, a little basketball, and leading 4-H. You always left the music lessons to me, but never missed a band concert or music festival. You loved to judge and never turned down an invitation if there was anyway you could do it. I used the picture of you judging the national show in Denmark for the inside of the card. You always enjoyed talking to the kids during the show and we could see them improve as the show progressed. Remember the time Kaleen questioned your judging skills all the way home from a show and she was only 10! I don't even know the number of clinics and junior shows you've done, but I do know that every spring the calendar would fill up. Then came the teenage years. We would start showing with the achievement day in Kitscoty, then off to Calgary Stampede, Bashaw Junior Shows, and the CJAA junior show somewhere in Canada. Then came the fall circuit of Stockade Round-Up, Farmfair and Agribition where Phil Collinge still can't believe someone took his Hocus Pocus can when he had set it right beside his foot. When asked how you could afford to do the circuit, your reply was always, how can I afford not to do it. Watching the girls develop through all the experiences those shows provided, was the reason you wanted any donations to go to the junior programs. I know how very proud you are of our girls and who they have become. You and Carl both agreed that their convocations were amongst the most boring days of your life, but when you stood beside them as they held their degrees, the buttons on your shirt were tight! I have pictures to prove!! The stories could go on and on; modifying/building your own air seeder, Jim & Wanda Labuik, "jimmy-riggin" and auction sales, Neil and Sharon Williams with the boys at the lake, silaging, and bird hunting, Jim Songhurst researching Savage guns, and the many, many friends who have their own stories about you. We hold your memory babe, Karen, Dalynn (Carl, Cordell, Calianne), Kaleen George & Helen Harris, siblings William (Blayne), Wilma(Barry), Sandra(Alvin), David(Holly) 12 nieces and nephews and 3 great nieces and nephews, numerous aunts, uncles and cousins Father-in-law Bruce McLennan(Dixie) and Sister-in-law Marie