Obituary of Gerald Keith Seed

November 12, 1926 – Fort William, Ontario
August 21, 2021 – Calgary, Alberta

It is with a heavy heart that we announce the passing of our father and grandfather, Gerald Seed at the Auburn Heights Residence in Calgary at the age of 94 years. 

He was born to Crem and Hazle Seed in Fort William, ON, now called Thunder Bay. Following his mother’s illness and death in 1933, he was raised by his grandparents Robert and Elizabeth Beninger who pioneered in the Rainy River District of Ontario at the turn of the century. His early schooling was in the one room schoolhouses of Mather 3 and Tait 7 and high school in Emo and Fort Frances. His holidays were spent working in the bush with his grandfather who was a woodsman from the days of the White Pine Logging. One summer he worked for Ontario Lands and Forest fire ranging. 

In the fall of ’43, Gerald joined the Royal Canadian Air Force and took training as a navigator and as the war was winding down spent a brief period in the Canadian Army. In the fall of 1946, Gerald enrolled at the University of New Brunswick and began training as a Forest Engineer. He returned home in summer break and worked as a guide of American fishing parties on Lake of the Woods. He married his sweetheart Iola Lundy a public-school teacher from Emo. She returned with him to UNB and assisted him the following three years of his university. He graduated first in his class of 129 in the spring of 1950. That fall he went to the University of Minnesota and obtained a Master’s Degree in Forest Management. Gerald’s work career of forty-one years began with the Ontario-Minnesota Pulp and Paper company in Kenora ON and continued with Dryden Paper Company, then with Great Lakes Paper Company in Thunder Bay that became Canadian Pacific Forest Products. He was heavily involved in introducing mechanical logging to the woods industry. He also served as Chairman of the Woodlands Section of the Canadian Pulp and Paper Association and Chairman of the Ontario Forest Industries. He retired at the end of 1991 as Regional Vice President of Canadian Pacific Forest Products at Thunder Bay and Dryden. He has enjoyed retirement in Calgary with his daughter and family, with skiing in the winters and summers at the farm in Black Hawk. Gerald was very proud of his children and grand children and was a positive influence in their lives. 

Gerald was predeceased by Iola his wife and partner of fifty-eight years in 2006, a sister Norma in 1992, and by his father, stepmother, grandparents, and special cousin Maxine in 2020. 

Gerald, Gerry GK, Ger, Grandpa Seedie (As called by his great-grandchildren), will be missed by his immediate family David, Leslie, and Paul (Alena); grandchildren, James (Victoria), Robert, Andrea and Jeremy (Iris); great-grandchildren, Owen and Olivia, and his dad’s second family Edith, Lou, and Allen. 

Gerald would have liked to be remembered as a boy from the small community of Black Hawk who grew up in the tough times of the 30’s and did well. 

Condolences, memories and photos can also be shared and viewed here.

In living memory of Gerald Seed, a tree will be planted in the Ann & Sandy Cross Conservation Area by McINNIS & HOLLOWAY FUNERAL HOMES, Fish Creek, 14441 Bannister Road SE, Calgary, AB T2X 3J3, Telephone: 403-256-9575.