ALFRED HERBERT (DEMPSEY) VALGARDSON (1918 - 2007)

Adjust Text Size: A+ A-

ALFRED HERBERT (DEMPSEY) VALGARDSON (1918 - 2007) It is with a great deal of sorrow that we announce the death of our father and grandfather, Dempsey. The last part of his life was spent in Betel, Gimli, Manitoba. Old age and deteriorating health did not stop him from planning his escape from the nursing home. It's a great place he often said but I still don't want to be here. We agree. If life were fair, he would have died in his skiff while lifting a net full of pickerel. Dempsey was predeceased by his son, Dale (1973) and his father, Swanberg Valgardsson, his mother, Blanche Bristow, his older brother, Earl, his younger brother, Allan and his beloved stepmother, Katherine. He is survived by his wife, Rachel, son William Dempsey (Bill), his daughter-in-law, Olena, his grandchildren, Val Valgardson, Nancy-Rae Hayman, Shawn Valgardson and Kim Zinke and his sister, Florence Fowler. He has six great-grandchildren. After the death of Dempsey's mother when he was twelve, his father married Katherine Cook. Dempsey is survived by Adolf (Zeke), Jack, Norman Valgardson and Marion Nesbitt from this second marriage. Dempsey was born in Gimli. He was not a great traveler. He grew up on third avenue, moved north three blocks when he got married and moved further north another block when he and his wife, Rae, built a new house. The two loves of his life were commercial fishing and the penny stock market. Dempsey met Rae when he was helping his father build a cottage for Rae's parents, William and Ethel Smith. The family story has it that Rae took so many glasses of water up the ladder to the roof where Dempsey was working that she sunburned the back of her legs. He always said he first saw her through a window and it was love at first sight. He spent a lifetime fighting for the underdog. He believed that the freshwater fishermen were exploited by a system that saw profits go to the fishing companies and not the fishermen. He fought for and helped organize The Manitoba Federation of Fishermen. Later, he worked to organize support for The Manitoba Freshwater Fish Marketing Board and served on the Board of Directors. He was one of the original members of the Board of Directors of the Gimli Credit Union. One day he came home with the Credit Union books and asked Rae if she'd take care of the books for two weeks while the Board found someone to take care of them permanently. The two weeks turned into twenty years. At first the Credit Union business was conducted in their living room but then Dempsey built the commercial building at Centre and Third (the old credit union building) and the Credit Union stayed there until it recently moved to its new building across the street. He lived and breathed the stock market but had no interest in blue chips or dividends. He was an expert on penny mining stocks so much so that brokers would call him to ask about some obscure company that was drilling for gold in an even more obscure location. He was one of very few people who knew that diamonds had been found in Canada decades before Canada's diamond rush began. When his son, Bill, once suggested he try making some blue chip investments, he thought about it overnight, then said, I'm not interested in investing. I'm looking for the big score. From time to time, he found it. Rather than be unemployed in the off-season, he had a barber shop. Many people still remember the first haircut he gave them, along with the nickel he slipped them for ice cream. However, as much as he enjoyed his customers, he loved commercial fishing more. Always the dapper dresser with his trade mark homburg, he was probably the only fisherman who put on a tie before going out to set or lift nets. Asked what fishing meant to him, he unhesitatingly said, Freedom. A memorial service will be held in Gimli at Gilbart's funeral chapel on September 1 at 11:00 a.m. In lieu of flowers donations may be made to The Betel Home Foundation, Betel Personal Care Home, Gimli MB R0C 1B0. Our families' deepest thanks to the caring staff at Betel. Gilbart Funeral Home, Gimli in care of arrangements.

As published in Winnipeg Free Press on Jul 28, 2007