Larry Mortimer

Larry was born on January 24, 1945 at the Calgary General Hospital. He was taken home to the family farm near Carbon, Alberta. He took all his schooling in Carbon and in high school, Larry met Gail Brown and they married October 22, 1966. They lived on the farm for a short while, moved to Vancouver briefly, then moved to Calgary, Alberta.

Larry got a job at United Trailer where he repaired old travel trailers and learned ‘by doing’ a little bit of carpentry, electrical, plumbing, etc while searching for a career job. Clarence Nickel, family friend and Calgary firefighter, mentioned joining the Calgary Fire Department to Larry and the rest is history. Larry joined the CFD in 1968, and thoroughly enjoyed his 34 year career, retiring as Captain in 2002.

Larry found a taste for carpentry and always said he never thought he would like it so much or that he could even do it. Learning ‘by doing’ he tackled building the family room in our first home. He started his own company building decks, fences, play grounds, etc on his days off. Built parade floats, from a sketch only, for Calgary, Red Deer, Edmonton for a few years. And many more projects over the years.

Larry had great enjoyment camping with his family & friends & many fire department comrades, fishing, water skiing, curling with the CFD to mention a few.

Larry & Gail started camping in 1968 and became a lifelong passion as a family & in retirement years. Larry, Gail & family fished and camped at Kootenay Lake for 20 years. They also camped extensively in Alberta, B.C., up & down the USA west coast. During retirement in 2005 Larry & Gail fulfilled their lifelong dream trip rv’ing across Canada. Started out on June 4th from Crossfield across Canada to the Maritimes, down the USA east coast to Tennessee west across mid USA arriving at Yuma on Nov 15th for the winter. We spent many years pulling our trailer south for the winter, and many other trips as well.

In 2018, we bought a place at Will-O-bend RV & Golf Park in Jaffray, B.C., where we have enjoyed our summers.

Larry was a man of few words, calm, gentle, easy going, hardly ever raised his voice, always looked on the bright side, modest, generous, compassionate and would give his last dollar away, if someone needed it more.

Larry was and will always be deeply loved by his wife Gail; son Kurtis (Kim) Mortimer; daughter Kari (Marc) Losier; grandsons Dantae Mortimer and Duncan McLaughlin; and granddaughter Madeline Mortimer. He was predeceased by his parents Andrew and Pauline Mortimer and of late, by his only sibling Geraldine Shadlock (March 2022).

A Celebration of Life will be held at South Calgary Funeral Centre, 12700 Macleod Trail South, (at Lake Fraser Gate), on Saturday, July 9, 2022 at 2:00 p.m.

In lieu of flowers, the family would appreciate donations being made in Larry’s memory directly to the Calgary Firefighters Burn Treatment Society, if desired.