LYNDON ANDREW EYJOLFUR ISLIEFSON

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LYNDON ANDREW EYJOLFUR ISLIEFSON Lyndon Isliefson, 50, of Wichita, KS, died Wednesday, July 13, 2016 seven months after a diagnosis of GBM (brain cancer). He fought hard against the disease, agreeing to every treatment the doctors recommended without complaint, not missing one, and returning to work before expected. In spite his determination to defeat it, the tumor returned in his spine, putting him in the hospital for the last month of his life. Lyndon was born in Winnipeg in January of 1966, fourth son of Cecil and Deanna Isliefson. He went to school in East Elmwood until the family moved to Transcona. He graduated from Murdoch MacKay Collegiate in 1983, earning several academic awards. During this time, he also completed the Royal Conservatory Grade 8 music exam in piano, along with the corresponding music theory exam. As a boy, Lyndon had an intense interest in aviation. He built many model planes, first from kits, and then from photos and scale drawings using plans he drew himself, to make one-of-a-kind First World War bombers. He was also fascinated by the Avro Arrow. He loved old cars too, and would bring home parts he found in the bush near the cottage at Winnipeg Beach, assembling them on the lawn and driving the Model T in his imagination. Some of those parts are on the working 1921 Model T that he completed in 2004. There were many other cars, with the ones that he sold remembered fondly. Lyndon also restored several antique tractors, including a steam traction engine, which then required a wooden threshing machine to match and Power Engineer credentials to safely operate it. He helped restore a steam traction engine at the Agricultural Museum at Austin, MB, another in Kansas, as well as a Stanley Steam car. Having no room for tractors in Wichita, he learned to clean and restore antique pocket watches, leading to a collection of watches, tiny tools and even a "time machine". Drawing, photography, and reading about the men who fought in the two World Wars and the equipment they used were some of his other passions. During the pursuit of these many hobbies, Lyndon made several life-long friends, in Manitoba, Kansas, and Oklahoma. After high school, Lyndon set aside his music to study engineering at the University of Manitoba, earning a B.Sc in Mechanical Engineering in 1987, and an M.Sc. in 1991. He also did the extra work to obtain his P.Eng. and received his Iron Ring in 1992. In January of 1991, he began working at Test Labs International in Winnipeg, where he developed skills as a metallurgist and failure analysis specialist. It was during this time that he travelled to mines, paper mills, smelting plants, hydroelectric dams and grain elevators around Manitoba and Northern Ontario. He climbed and crawled and squeezed into dark shafts, sooty boilers, dizzying superstructures and even stood at the foot of gates holding back a 20 storey high wall of water, to diagnose problems and make these places safe for others to work. On his first day there, he met Vicky Haslen, and they were married in July of 1995. Soon after, he also adopted Vicky's son Joe, and purchased "the farm" near Stonewall, finally finding enough room for all the cars and tractors. In 1999, Cessna Aircraft started calling, but it took nearly a year to persuade Lyndon to leave his family and his collection to move to Wichita. He worked there for over 16 years, surviving many lay-off cycles and earning awards from the company for his outstanding work and the admiration of his counterparts at the FAA and NTSB. At Cessna, Lyndon was an innovator and teacher, developing new protocols for failure analysis and passing on his skills to his colleagues, interns and new recruits. His red pen was dreaded by all, but he earned their respect for taking the time to help them improve their skills. Family, friends and colleagues also appreciated his systematic way of approaching any problem, dealing calmly with setbacks, and adding some humour and the occasional practical joke to keep things going smoothly. After moving to Wichita, Lyndon caught the travel bug. Believing he had not provided Vicky with a proper honeymoon, he strove to make up for it with yearly trips, first to cities in the US, and eventually to Europe. A work trip took them to London, and his interest in the First World War and Second World War history resulted in several trips to France. They visited Paris, along with the Vimy Ridge Memorial, battlefields in northern France, side trips to Belgium and the Netherlands, and the D-Day landing beaches of Normandy. They visited the graves of Lyndon's uncle Barney and Vicky's uncle Fraser, and made some good friends in several countries. The final trip to France in 2016 included two of Lyndon's brothers, as he wanted to share the experience with them. Survivors include his wife Vicky, son Joseph (Colleen), mother Deanna Isliefson, grandchildren Luke, Joseph, Jett, Mercedes and Scarlett, siblings Mitchell (Diane), Ronald (Toni), Gary (Carmela), and Diana (Curtis) Emerson, parents-in-law Jim and Janet Fearnley and Elliott and Patricia Haslen, brother-in-law Terry Haslen, sisters-in-law Elizabeth (Darcy) Robins, April (Randy) Barker, and many aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his father Cecil Isliefson; grandparents Thorstein and Osk (Sarah) Isliefson and Eyjolfur (Eyvie) and Margaret Isfeld, several uncles, aunts and cousins, and beloved border collies, Belle and Shadow. A service will be held at First Lutheran Church, 580 Victor St., Winnipeg on September 17, 2016 at 2:00 p.m. A private interment of ashes will follow. Memorial donations may be sent to the Winnipeg Humane Society, 45 Hurst Way, Winnipeg, MB R3T 0R3. A photo tribute may also be viewed at www.smithfamilymortuaries.com

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As published in Winnipeg Free Press on Sep 10, 2016