William Bilsland Barr

It is with great sadness and heavy hearts that we announce the sudden passing of Bill Barr at the age of 95, at the Victoria Hospital.

Bill is survived by his beautiful wife of 70 years, Doris, his daughter Jane Pereux (Rene); son Dan Barr (Michele); grandchildren Ray Pereux (Lisa), Lianne Pereux (Daniel Billinkoff), Ryan Copen (Tegan), Logan Copen (Camille), Will Janssen (Gill), Erin Janssen, Michael Janssen (Stephanie Strempler); great-grandchildren, Shyla, Sadie, Rae-Ann, Nathan, Aria, Luke and Lydia. He was predeceased by his daughter Nancy Barr in 2011 as well as brothers and sisters Lou, Doris, Eileen, and Art.

How can you sum up a man’s life?

Due to the early death of his own father, Bill’s uncles, (Will and Johnny), got him a job on the railway. Bill worked with the Canadian Pacific Railway for 44 years. Starting as a wiper at the age of 16 and after stints as a brakeman and a fireman he became an engineer like his two uncles before him. Bill worked as a fireman on steam engines when the duty of a fireman was to keep the fire in the boiler of the engine stoked. He estimated that a one-way trip to La Riviere was about 12 tons of coal. That meant on a round trip it was customary for Bill to have shoveled 24 tons of coal. Bill was also an engineer that actually operated trains using coal fired steam engines and the love of the railway and steam generated locomotives was always in his blood. His experiences as an engineer and fireman on the old steamers were documented in two published stories he wrote called “Snowplow West” and “They Paid Me To Boil Water.” They are considered to be very funny and informative accounts of early railway life. Bill retired in 1984, his last position working as an engineer for Via Rail driving the Number One and Two from Winnipeg to Kenora and back. During his career Bill was a proud member of and always active in the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers. He served on numerous committees and delegations dealing with his union’s functions. Bill was also an active member of the retired railway engineers’s community, organizing luncheons, relief drives and other functions.

As a youngster Bill was a natural athlete excelling at many sports including swimming, hockey, speed skating and skiing. He met his future wife Doris while on a ski trip that they were both attending. The story goes that he rescued her from a snowbank where she had fallen. He was always active and as his family grew, he embraced many activities and instilled a love of sports and outdoor fun in his kids.

Bill was a devoted husband and father. He loved Doris and they had the most wonderful relationship right up to Bill’s passing. They were a kind, considerate, and loving couple and a great role model for their children. Later on in life as Doris entered a Personal Care Home their relationship and love were featured on a C.B.C. news feature titled “Love Lives On: Couple married 66 years copes with Alzheimer’s Disease.” It is still available to watch online.

Bill created a great home and homelife for his family. Scenes of Bill dancing throughout the house singing and sweeping Doris off her feet in a dramatic and romantic fashion just to give her a kiss were common occurrences in the Barr household. Bill worked very hard to create special and lasting memories for his children. After working full shifts Bill would come home to be with his family. His children’s happiness and delight were a major priority for him. “Happy Happy Fun Time” was a special event which basically consisted of Bill throwing the kids around on the bed in some of the best rough housing play any child could ever want. Bill built skating rinks and snowslides in the backyard during the winter and had an above ground pool in the garage along with monkey bars in the backyard during the summer. His family was one of the first families or only family on the block to have a trampoline which he brought back strapped to the hood of his car after a road trip to Columbus Ohio, U.S.A.

Bill loved to laugh and he loved to make others laugh. He was very quick witted in a kind and seemingly innocent way that was both funny and charming, and often razor sharp. He rarely failed at coming back with a humorous reply or answer to almost any form of comment, inquiry or social situation. Bill was fun to be with. He was his neighborhood’s unofficial sheriff, mayor and greeter. All the kids in the neighborhood flocked to Bill. He was more young-at-heart than most teenagers and had a love of life that was infectious and special.

Birthdays and Christmas and Halloween and Canada Day were always special. Bill loved fireworks and sparklers and costumes and masks and employed them often with little to no prompting. When his children were young, he would dress them and himself up for Halloween and accompany them from house to house visiting and socializing, a tradition that he kept up on both Halloween and Christmas long after his children had grown up and moved out. He lived in his house on Pawnee Bay for many years and his neighbours loved him. His kindness and generosity shone through him. Not many people were quick to forget him after meeting him.

Bill filmed and took pictures of everything pretty much all his life. He documented and collected data and journaled on everything from his trips to England, (7 trips; he loved the place), the farm, the beach, work trips and each and every trip he made to visit his wife Doris as she entered the Personal Care Home system.

Bill loved the zany and the absurd, comedians such as Laurel and Hardy, the Marx Brothers, Ritz Brothers, Stan Freeberg and Spike Jones and His City Slickers were some of Bill’s favourites. Bill loved music and musicals. His record collection which included 78’s was diverse and varied. Bill would often record himself on cassette tape or digital film, singing or acting along to his favorite songs and play them back to give everyone a smile or groan.

During the summer Bill would rent a cabin for weeks at a time at Victoria Beach, one of his favourite places in the world. He would pack practically his whole household including a wife, three kids, a dog and at least two cats in a station wagon and a trailer and make the trip up to his beach paradise. Barbecues, fresh bread and walks to the pump for water with his family were some of the happiest memories for Bill.

Bill and Doris also had some land with a farmhouse outside of Portage La Prairie that the family would visit both in the summer and winter and spend many happy hours together. The original farmhouse that stood on the property was struck by lighting and burned down so Bill, with help from his brothers Lou and Arthur along with a number of nephews constructed a new A – Frame farmhouse. Bill built the structure in sections in the backyard of 10 Pawnee Bay and transported the pieces by trailer to the farm and built it on site over a number of weekends one summer.

Bill was an avid hockey fan and coach for many years for many teams at the Winakwa Community Club. He was an ardent Montreal Canadiens fan and proudly wore his Habs hat wherever he could. He was a hunter. He loved his hunting dogs, and his wild game hunting. He loved watching his dogs work a field and flush a bird. He would walk miles and miles of territory hunting with his brothers Art and Lou. He was a founding member of the Springer Spaniel Club of Manitoba. With his brother Art he was a popular member of The Manitoba Model Soldier Society. As a member of The Vintage Locomotive Society he volunteered at the Railway Museum. He volunteered for the Prairie Dog Central Railway as a porter. Bill changed from his porter uniform into his overalls and worked on restoring the train. Bill was an artist. He was a craftsman and made many wood carvings while belonging to the Winnipeg Carvers Club.

It was as his children grew and started families of their own that Bill really came into his true element. Daddy transformed into Poppie, and both he and Doris became fulltime professional grandparents. Bill was a natural grandfather and later in life great grandfather. His love and affection for his family did not thin as his family grew and he continued to make everyone feel special. His energy and love just grew to fill the capacity of all of his children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. His grandchildren experienced true love and affection from Poppie and Gran. Trips to parks for picnics, art projects in his work- room, and breakfasts at Sal’s doing the daily crossword puzzle are treasured memories. His great-grandchildren often used FaceTime to stay in touch with their Poppie, making his day when they called.

Bill was a progressive thinker and accepting of everyone, treating all he met equally. He loved nature and was an early environmental activist who organized and led yearly clean-ups of the Seine River. He went on walk-a-thons, bike-a-thons, he canvassed for the Heart and Stroke Foundation along with the Reh-Fit Center. He volunteered and gave generously to many causes and charities. Bill loved to pay it forward. His generosity is well known. He valued people enough to make them feel special.

Bill lived his entire life with a positive attitude and a love of people. He had a ridiculous sense of humour which brought laughter and joy to everyone he met. He made many friends throughout his life and he will be missed by all.

Impressions of Life with Bill:

Snow forts, go carts, gardens and carports, treehouses, bedrooms, outhouses and a farmhouse

Gliders, kites, brand new bikes, skates, sticks, toys, poems, rocks (lots of rocks), dog kennel runs, guitar repair, and guns, guns, guns.

Heart and Stroke, Reh-Fit, Batmobile and van retro-fits, Crabapple wine (un-drinkable), and carpentry skills, Furby Street and household bills

Trips to Delta, driving to work, cross-country skiing and his old work shirts (which always had a faint smell of diesel oil)

Melting lead and hunting partridge, filling shotgun shells so save your cartridge.

Minnedosa, England and down the street always friendly to all he meets.

Pawnee Bay, Niakwa Park, golf ball farm with Chev and Spark.

A loyal man with a hero’s heart.

That was Bill Barr, that was Bill Barr.