Donald Robert Willcox (Don)

1932 – 2023 

It is with deep sadness we announce that Donald Robert Willcox (Don) passed away at Extendicare Tuxedo Villa in Winnipeg at the age of 90 years after a brief illness. Don is survived by his son Rob, daughter Donna and many nieces and nephews. Don was pre-deceased by his wife Olive (Flack), parents Elgie and Mary Willcox, sisters Eunace (Evanochko) and Marlene (Verdes), and brother Dale.

We would like to thank the doctors, nurses and other healthcare staff at Grace Hospital and Tuxedo Villa who treated and cared for Dad during his times at those institutions.

Don was born in Regina in 1932, into the middle of the Great Depression, but always considered his hometown to be Bulyea, north and west of Regina. Times were tough and the family moved around as his father worked to support his growing family. Don’s mother Mary continued to look after the family after Don’s father volunteered to serve in the Canadian Army during World War 2 and was overseas for most of five years. 

After finishing high school, Don began looking for work. Seeking adventure, he came across an ad for store clerks with the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) Inland Stores division, the original part of the Company. Don applied for and joined the Company as a junior clerk in July 1951, with his first assignment at Cumberland House in east-central Saskatchewan. Thus began a 47-year career with the Company, first with HBC and later when his division was sold by HBC and became the Northwest Company.

In 1952, Don moved to Norway House, Manitoba, followed by a number of shorter-term positions at various stores, before moving to Fort Hope, Ontario as the store manager. During that time, he also travelled to Montreal to receive his fur-grading certificate.

However, after six years of living in remote locations, Don decided it was time to move back to a larger community. The Company offered, and Don accepted, a position as an assistant accountant at the division’s head office at Gibraltar House, in Winnipeg, in 1957. The six years he spent “in the bush” provided him with a lifetime of adventures, stories, and many albums of carefully annotated photos.

It was there he met and later married fellow employee Olive Flack. As their wedding date approached, the company asked Don to transfer to an assistant accountant position at the Montreal depot. Don discussed this with Olive, and Olive, herself having previously travelled across North America, agreed. After a honeymoon at Lake of the Woods, the newlyweds were off to Montreal.

During the three years in Montreal, Don and Olive welcomed two children:  Rob and Donna. Shortly after Donna’s birth, the family was off to Edmonton for just over two years, before heading back to Montreal for another 5-1/2 years, this time with Don as head accountant. 

During their second stay in Montreal, the family took up camping and spend many weekends and vacations throughout southern Ontario and New England; a favourite location for weekend getaways was Lake Carme in northern Vermont.

From Montreal, it was back to Edmonton for fourteen years starting in 1970. In late 1983, the Company transferred Don back to Winnipeg, where he and Olive moved – minus their now adult children – for the final fourteen years of Don’s career.

In the mid-1980s, HBC decided to sell the original part of the company, which took on the name of the Company’s formal rival from the 1800s: North West Company.

Don’s Winnipeg work years required a great deal of travel and he visited stores from eastern Canada to Alaska and as far north as Resolute Bay. He once commented to Rob that if he was back at headquarters much more than three weeks he began to get itchy feet and the urge to get out on the road again. The three members of the family would regularly receive postcards from one obscure location or another, as well as the occasional, sometimes satellite-delayed phone call from especially remote locations.

In early 1998, a few months after his 65^th birthday, Don retired from the Company, a career that lasted just short of 47 years.

Shortly after Rob joined Cub Scouts, Don also found the time to volunteer with Rob’s Cub pack. That was the beginning of over fifty years of volunteerism: 30 years with Scouts Canada, local political ridings, the Edmonton Classical Guitar Society, and both the Edmonton and Winnipeg Jazz Society and Fort Whyte Alive, the Winnipeg nature preserve.

After retiring, Don decided to wind up those activities, staying on with Fort Whyte Alive. However, he then began volunteering at local Winnipeg Police stations, working on administrative tasks, and joined Toastmasters, obtaining his public speaking certificate twice.

With his love of music, Don became quite involved with the local oldies radio station CJNU, where he volunteered as an engineer and occasional broadcaster. He also volunteered to work on a few running race events each year, something he and Rob had done in the late 70’s for the Canadian Marathon Championship and the Edmonton Commonwealth Games in 1978.

Fort Whyte Alive was a place where Don especially enjoyed volunteering. He conducted nature walks for over seventeen years, and also worked the information desk and helped with some of the bookkeeping.

Don and Olive regularly attended Winnipeg Goldeyes baseball games, Manitoba Moose hockey games, and for a few years Winnipeg Jets games. Olive was an especially avid sports fan and Don was happy to get out and cheer for the teams, with Rob and Donna joining them for occasional games. Don was a long-time Saskatchewan Roughriders and Green Bay Packers fan.

As he reached his mid-80s, age and occasional health issues occasionally intruded and Don began to slow down his volunteer efforts. However, he still managed to continue his longstanding lunches with his old HBC colleagues every week – Wednesdays with one group and Fridays with another, and still occasionally worked at Ft. Whyte.

With the help of his daughter Donna, Don managed to live at home on his own after Olive’s passing in 2021, until his final few months.

As per Don’s wishes, a cremation has taken place.

If you wish to make a donation in his memory, Don would be pleased to know it went to Fort Whyte Alive nature centre.