Francis Alan Kennedy was the only child of Hazel Irene (nee Burrows) and Lorne Christopher Kennedy, born on February 10, 1931 at the Miami Cottage Hospital. Alan left this earth on August 23, 2023 at Salem Home in Winkler, with his family at his bedside.
Alan lived life with a lot of energy, and a lot of ideas. He was well known for his mechanical abilities, his inventive designs for farm machinery, and even artistic metal work in weathervanes and stained glass and iron signs. To finance his farmland purchase, he designed and built a crane from war surplus parts (including the hydraulics from the landing gear of a P51 bomber), and put it to work on the bridge building crew of the RM of Thompson in the ‘50s.
He was a farmer, through and through, with a special passion for corn growing. Although farming could be close to all consuming, his real love was aviation. He earned his pilot’s license, and had his own plane for many years before the responsibilities of family life convinced him to spend time on less dangerous pursuits, while still reading every aviation magazine he could get his hands on. In his midlife years, Alan was an active member of the Winnipeg Gliding club, where he probably spent more hours maintaining the runways (more farming really) and tinkering with the mower than he did actually flying.
Alan’s other lifelong passion was downhill skiing: from driving a grain truck to Banff and Lake Louise in 1962 for a ski trip, to teaching each of his daughters to ski at Ski Birch and then Snow Valley, to watching his grandchildren learn to ski in the Rocky Mountains. His retirement project was being a volunteer Canadian Ski Patroller along with his wife Dulcie, which kept him skiing well into his 80s and also shoveling show (which is like more farming).
Alan believed in community service, serving on the boards of the Corn Growers Association, Miami Coop, Access Credit Union, Miami United Church, Midland School Division, Morden Stanley Thompson Winkler Planning District, in addition to being a councilor for the RM of Thompson.
He is survived by his wife Dulcie and his daughters Michelle, Risa (Wayne) and their children Natalia and Lauren Cusson, and Sandy (Arlin) and their children Anson and Erica Amundrud.
Funeral service will be held on Friday, September 8, 2023 at 2:00 p.m. at the Miami Community Hall. Interment will take place in the Miami Cemetery.
Memorial donations may be made to the Miami Area Foundation, Box 334, Miami, MB, R0G 1H0.
Alan lived life with a lot of energy, and a lot of ideas. He was well known for his mechanical abilities, his inventive designs for farm machinery, and even artistic metal work in weathervanes and stained glass and iron signs. To finance his farmland purchase, he designed and built a crane from war surplus parts (including the hydraulics from the landing gear of a P51 bomber), and put it to work on the bridge building crew of the RM of Thompson in the ‘50s.
He was a farmer, through and through, with a special passion for corn growing. Although farming could be close to all consuming, his real love was aviation. He earned his pilot’s license, and had his own plane for many years before the responsibilities of family life convinced him to spend time on less dangerous pursuits, while still reading every aviation magazine he could get his hands on. In his midlife years, Alan was an active member of the Winnipeg Gliding club, where he probably spent more hours maintaining the runways (more farming really) and tinkering with the mower than he did actually flying.
Alan’s other lifelong passion was downhill skiing: from driving a grain truck to Banff and Lake Louise in 1962 for a ski trip, to teaching each of his daughters to ski at Ski Birch and then Snow Valley, to watching his grandchildren learn to ski in the Rocky Mountains. His retirement project was being a volunteer Canadian Ski Patroller along with his wife Dulcie, which kept him skiing well into his 80s and also shoveling show (which is like more farming).
Alan believed in community service, serving on the boards of the Corn Growers Association, Miami Coop, Access Credit Union, Miami United Church, Midland School Division, Morden Stanley Thompson Winkler Planning District, in addition to being a councilor for the RM of Thompson.
He is survived by his wife Dulcie and his daughters Michelle, Risa (Wayne) and their children Natalia and Lauren Cusson, and Sandy (Arlin) and their children Anson and Erica Amundrud.
Funeral service will be held on Friday, September 8, 2023 at 2:00 p.m. at the Miami Community Hall. Interment will take place in the Miami Cemetery.
Memorial donations may be made to the Miami Area Foundation, Box 334, Miami, MB, R0G 1H0.