Donald Irving Stewart Jr.

With broken hearts we wish to inform you of the sudden passing of Donald Irving Stewart in the early morning hours of Wednesday February 26, 2020. He was known as Don and Papa to all who knew and loved him and he will be greatly missed.

Don was born October 18, 1946 in Liverpool, Nova Scotia and heard the call to Come WEST young man in the early 60’s. Ocean to Ocean he left the Atlantic to settle on Vancouver Island on the Pacific. Soon Port Alberni became home where he met and married his wife Beverley and worked at the Somas Mill then the APD for many years as a boom man. In the late 80’s they moved to Kamloops BC where he worked as a transport driver for Northern trailer for over 23 years. Driving transport rigs was “his dream come true” for him.

His hobby was restoring Corvettes and several other vehicles cars and trucks along with motor cycles, building a U-Built Harley as one of his final projects. One of his other joys was to walk his two beloved dogs twice daily in the pine tree forest trails near his home and going on long driving adventures with his wife.

He leaves behind his beloved wife of 55 years, Beverley (nee Beauregard); his Son Brian Stewart, wife Allison, young grandsons William (10) and Jaxson (4) of Kelowna. His daughter Aimee, and “first born” grandchild Ryan (26), currently of Kelowna and granddaughter, Jessica (24) of Kamloops. He also had a place in his heart for his “neighbour Grandkids, Teagan and Stephie Mosley.

Don is predeceased by his Father Donald Sr. his Mother Betty (Zwicker) both of Nova Scotia, two brothers, Frank and Brian and two sisters Patricia and Darlene.

Give your loved ones a hug because we never know when we will be called.

Aimee - My Dad My Hero

My Dad has always been here for me. I remember one time we were fishing at papermill dam when I was pretty young. He bought me my first fishing rod - I went to cast my rod and accidentally threw my whole rod in the river (pretty far out there) And it was still cold outside but my dad dove in that river to get that fishing rod for me.

I tried to help him build a retaining wall at their house on foxwood lane. We went out into the bush to find boulders. We packed that truck so full the box was rubbing the back tire. I swear, packing those rocks into the back yard was so exhausting. I could never keep up to him but Dad wouldn't stop until it was done.

When he found out I was about to give birth to my son Ryan. He dropped his trucking load wherever he was (I'm not sure) and rushed to the hospital to hold his first born grandson.

When I was having a bad day at work, he stopped in just to give me a hug.

Those arms, I am going to miss so much but "you are forever in my heart Dad" I will always remember his love and strength, it surrounds me and us all.

Thank you for being my Dad, I will always love you.

Ed Helgren

Don Stewart, I had the pleasure of working with Don for about 10 years, as time passed and we got to know each other and became more than co-workers but friends.

When I first started working with Don, we would have the odd disagreement on how things should be. Finally I realized that arguing with Don was like wrestling with a pig in the mud and the pig likes it. I sure got muddy for a while.

As we got to know Don, I found that he loved watching NASCAR. I asked him one day why he liked watching the racing so much? With a twinkle in his eye he replied, it is fast, noisy and I can't hear Bev, then he laughed.

The more he and I talked about NASCAR, I started watching it and he was right, I couldn't hear my wife either! What a great sport this is.

After short time passed, I asked him if he ever wanted to go and see a race and if so, which race was on the top of his list. Without hesitation, he said yes, he would like to go to watch a live race and Talladega was the race to see.

A couple months passed; Talladega was approaching. Saw Don and said your bag and let's go to the race. He looked at me and asked if I was joking. No sir I replied, and it was set, we were heading to the race.

Well when the time came, we were driving to Bellingham, fly to Seattle and on to Alabama. First stop was the American Border crossing. We were stopped and asked why we were going in the USA, without hesitation Don looked at the customs agent and replied we had a need for speed, customs came right back, "so you are a pair of red necks heading to Talladega" and he laughed, have a good time now get out of here you are holding up traffic.

The next day we arrived at the airport and had to go through security, as we moved up the line, security came over picking Don and I out of the line up and said come with me, Don turned to me and said I told you not to bring that, get ready for the rubber glove. As it turned out we are being moved to a different line with less security. We had been randomly selected by the computer as low risk. Don said, Gee I like those computers but only after he saw that there were no rubber gloves on the counter as we walked through.

Well we arrived in Alabama unscathed, checked into our hotel and waited for the race.

When the time came, we were off. Arriving at the track i mentioned, sure are a lot of people here. He replied this IS TALLEDAGA!

We got off the bus and started wandering around observing all there was to observe.

After an hour of wondering we went to our seats, on the way I asked him if he was going to get earplugs He said no Bev isn't here.

After finding our seat, we went down to the pits to check out the cars and crews.

I learned something while I was there, they glue the nuts to the change-over tires and that is one reason why they can change tires so quickly. Simply amazing.

As we walked back to our seat Don pulled out a black felt pen on the start/finish line he wrote "Don Stewart and Ed Helgren were here". He said this way they will know we were here.

We got back to our seats looking around at all the different types of people, Don thought we had landed in red neck heaven.

In the row in front of us a couple came and sat in front of us, she was about 4' nothing and he was about 6'6 and weighed about 110lbs. He was one of those types of guys in high school you just knew he was going to grow up and be a boss, but you hoped not yours.

Well he had a set of head phones but couldn't figure out how to put them on. Now Don being the caring, helpful kind of guy he was motioned to the guy to sit down. He then reached out motioning to give him the head phones and the guy did, in the meantime, I am wondering "what is Don up to now"

He took the head phones and spread and spread them out as far as he could and just before he placed them on the guys head he looked at me and smiled. Well when he released them I thought the guys head was going to collapse, there was such a pop that I am sure the guy didn't need them anymore because I am sure he was almost deaf and I bet he couldn't hear his wife either.

The next day after the race we headed home and yes, green light all the way home, I am liking those computers more and more.

As time passed, safety became more and more demanding, more classes, more site orientations and no facial hair. Well Don liked his facial hair.

One day Don had to travel to Grande Prairie for work. He spent the night there and called me in the morning saying things were changing too much for him and he was going to retire when he returned. I said that is too bad and would see him when he got back.

About 15 minutes later I got a strange feeling and looked on the satellite tracking to see where Don was. He was headed south which seemed strange because all to work was in the opposite direction. So I called him and said "Thunder Bay" he said yes and we laughed like hell.

When he got back to Kamloops he got out of the truck and we never spoke a word, we both just started laughing.

Don hope you are watching NASCAR on the big screen every Sunday. After you introduced me to the sport I do and yes, I can't hear my wife.