Obituary of Stanley John Dalidowicz

November 9, 1941 - Jankowicze, Poland

March 24, 2024 - Calgary, Alberta

Stanley Dalidowicz, beloved husband of Mary Dalidowicz (nee Barker), of Calgary, AB, passed away on Sunday, March 24, 2024, at the age of 82 years.

Stan was born in the village of Jankowicze, Poland, on November 9, 1941, to his father Dominik and mother Stella, descending from a line of prosperous farmers. The origin story of this family was far from peaceful farming however, as their village was ransacked during the war by the invading Soviets, later replaced by an equally brutal German occupation. It was the Nazis who burned the Dalidowicz homestead to the ground and deported Stella, Dominik, and young Stan to Germany for forced labour. Stan’s brother Frank was born in that work camp, and the family was detained there under harsh conditions until eventually liberated by the Allies. Shortly thereafter, the family emigrated to Canada.  

The fire of war tempered the steel of this family as hard-working immigrants. They worked full-time at the General Motors plant and a foundry in Oshawa and tended local tobacco fields to earn extra money to build a future for their children. Their tenacity produced two exceptionally gifted professionals: Frank became a geophysicist, partly responsible for discovering the Shea Creek uranium and gold deposits in Northern Saskatchewan; Stan became a chemical engineer of global renown.

In 1969 Stan joined Shell Canada Limited, where he worked in the Chemical Section of the Production Department in Calgary and was responsible for patenting the “gel pig”: a gelled condensate used to clear lines and place corrosion inhibition chemicals in sour gas pipelines, a revolutionary technique at the time. This was just one of his many accomplishments with Shell, which included being the Production Manager in the Pincher Creek Waterton Field (which was Shell’s biggest and most profitable gas field in Canada), Swan Hills Field (which was Shell’s biggest oil field in Canada at the time), the Simonette Field and Shell International in Poland building a bottled gas plant. He was responsible for the design and construction of Shell’s Research Center at the University of Calgary. His accomplishments with Shell were numerous, but none topped Stan’s crowning success when he retired from Shell to begin his consulting firm “Dalidowicz and Associates”, leading numerous pipeline projects with Colt, Stantec, and Suncor. The man is a legend in his field.

His efforts in the oil patch paid off the most however when he met the love of his life while obtaining his engineering degree at Michigan Tech. Stan met Mary on a beach where she caught his eye as a beautiful young sunbathing lifeguard. That small, precious moment would then blossom into a relationship lasting 50 years in marriage. Stan loved his Mary. As busy as his work life got, Mary was always there, the firm hand on the tiller of his life. She followed him wherever his career took him, cultivated a loving home for him to return to every day and held down the fort when he worked so very far away. Mary was everything to him. Even in his last days when he was too ill to realize it, she was everything to him then, too.

He and Mary raised three sons who would go on to become highly successful contributing members of society, each with long careers in the three levels of government. Stan loved to boast about his boys. Jim joined the Calgary Police Service in 2003 where he is a decorated Sergeant with the Organized Crime Intelligence Unit. Matt became a Crown Prosecutor in 2008 where he still currently prosecutes serious and violent organized crime. Dan served with the Canadian Military with a tour in Afghanistan where he received a General Campaign Star and Canadian Decoration, and currently works with the Canada Energy Regulator as an Emergency Management Officer. Needless to say, Stan’s legacy lives on.

Nothing brought a smile to Stan’s face however like his grandchildren. His boys each married Courtney, Christy, and Valeria, and he loved his new daughters like his own. The birth of his first grandson, Carter, put a sparkle in his eye that we had never seen before. Put simply, he flourished as “Papa Stan.”

Along with Carter, the subsequent births of William, Anne, Catherine, and Victoria brought him renewed joy. He loved nothing more than filling a candy drawer with suckers for the grandkids to raid. His pockets were constantly stuffed with treats for them when he would visit. In return they doted upon their Papa, smothering him with cuddles and kisses. They miss him dearly. We all do.

We’ll see him again someday but until then we will smell him in the sawdust of a woodshop. We will see him in the flower of a tomato plant. We will hear him in the babble of a fishing stream. And we will cry, but we will also smile a little bit. Until we meet again.

A Celebration of Stan’s Life will be held at Springbank Heritage Club (244168 Range Road 33, Calgary, AB), on Saturday, April 27, 2024, at 4:00 p.m. Those wishing to attend may RSVP by Saturday, April 19, 2024, to dalidowicz@gmail.com.

Condolences, memories, and photos may be shared and viewed with Stanley’s family here.

In living memory of Stanley Dalidowicz, a tree will be planted in the Ann & Sandy Cross Conservation Area by McInnis & Holloway Funeral Homes, Crowfoot, 82 Crowfoot Circle NW, Calgary, AB T3G 2T3, Telephone: 403-241-0044.