Paul Sperling

He was born on April 20, 1940 to Gottfried and Lilly Sperling (nee Henke) in Lissa, Poland (now Germany).

Paul immigrated to Canada in 1956. He learned English on the job, building a pipeline in northern Canada and continued in the construction industry for his working life. He retired as a highly respected crane operator. The International Union of Operating Engineers Local 115 celebrated his 50 years of membership in 2016.

He was an avid gardener, carpenter and outdoorsman. He was passionate about living close to the land, growing much of his own food, caring for the forest and having the smallest ecological footprint possible. One of his passion projects was developing locally adapted vegetable varieties through saved seeds, including a variety of salad tomato that could survive -4 degrees Celsius.

Paul is survived by his sisters Elfriede Elhers, Erna Geissler and step-daughter Jayme Melrose. He was predeceased by his parents Gottfried and Lilly Sperling.