Michael Charles Reichardt

Michael passed away recently at the age of 93, after a full life of family, friends, hard work and creativity. The son of Hungarian immigrants, he grew up in St. Boniface and apart from a brief adventure to the gold mines of B.C., spent his whole life in Winnipeg. He also served in the Canadian military for seven months in 1945 during WWII. He worked as an instrument technician and pipe fitter at Shell Oil (formerly North Star Oil) from 1950 until 1983 when he settled into early retirement to pursue his passion of sketching and painting. Throughout his time at Shell, Mike could be found, several evenings per month, working in his basement office manually bookkeeping all the financial transactions for the Shell Oil Credit Union; he was known as the “Efficiency Expert.” Two of his sons, Randy and Todd, received their first credit loans courtesy of their Dad. He was also supportive of his three sons’ interest in playing hockey, baseball, and football.

Always creative, he was now able to spend more time on his artwork. He loved to paint, especially landscapes, nature and rural scenes, and cottages. He expanded his interests over time to include watercolours, oils and acrylics, as well as painting on pieces of birch bark. His works are hanging in many homes throughout Canada and the USA, and most everyone in the family has at least one.

Michael loved music, and was very young at heart in this regard. Among his favourites were tunes like Avalon by Roxy Music, I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For by U2, and A Day in the Life by The Beatles.

Michael leaves behind his beloved wife of 67 years, Loretta; three sons: Randy, Chris (Debra) and Todd (Edie); and two grandchildren, Jocelyn and Elliott, of whom he was very proud. He also leaves his last two siblings, Frank (Margaret) and Ida, brother-in-law Carl, and numerous nieces and nephews. His parents, Carl and Elizabeth, two sisters (Caroline and Eleanor) and one brother-in-law (Paul) all predeceased him.

His mischievous humour, generosity, introspective philosophizing and stalwart loyalty to those he loved remain in our hearts.

His memorial service will be held Saturday, 07 March 2020, at St. Bernadette Parish, 820 Cottonwood Road in Windsor Park, St. Boniface at 11:00 hrs. He will be interred on Monday, 09 March 2020, in a private ceremony for family at Green Acres Funeral Home and Cemetery.