VANDERZWAN, Niel

1933 ~ 2025

“Say not in grief ‘he is no more’ but in thankfulness that he was”

Mr. Cornelus ‘Niel’ Vanderzwan passed away quietly and peacefully, we are grateful to have had the privilege to say goodbye in his final hours.

Dad was born in a small town of Rijswijk in the Netherlands; his father was a telegraphist for the Dutch National Railway and as such they moved around the country often when he was transferred to different station. They settled in Haarlem with their large family and Dad enjoyed a happy childhood until the invasion of Holland by German Forces during World War II. Life became difficult, food was scarce and friends and neighbors “disappeared”. After a joyful liberation Dad went to work at 14 years of age in a bakery. He received his banketbaker (pastry baker) papers four years later. While riding bicycles with a friend through a park, they met two young ladies known to the friend but not to Dad. Neil was particularly interested in the pretty blonde and discovered that she worked at a nearby corner grocery store. He plotted to wait for one evening and casually feigned a coincidental meeting when she left at 6:00 p.m. However, the young lady had been invited to stay for dinner and didn’t leave until 8:00 p.m. the two-hour wait was well worth it, as the pretty blonde became his wife and our mother.

They were married in May of 1955 and shared a dream of providing a better life for the children, Dad wanted his own bakery one day. On May 18, 1955, they embarked on the SS Waterman to Canada arriving in Halifax, Nova Scotia on Dads birthday. They then travelled by steam train to Calgary, Alberta where they met up with Dad’s brother Wim. Niel was offered a job with a baker in Olds, Alberta, so with fifty Guilders and two suitcases, they moved to a one-room suite, sleeping on the floor till the could afford a bed. From Olds they moved back to Calgary, then to Drumheller followed by Edmonton where Dad worked at Bateman Foods. He heard of a bakery for sale in Sundre, Alberta, an old, dilapidated Building with living quarters upstairs. No heat or water, but he thought he could make it work, he moved a pregnant wife and five children into the living quarters and with blood sweat and tears….He made it work. The First morning he baked, he first had to thaw the pipes under building and that same month he had to throw out a batch of bread when he rushed Mom to the hospital in Olds, to deliver the six baby of the family, But he had his bakery and was soon able to build a new one and a new home for his family.

Niel’s life continued to be full and busy, he wore many hats over the years, the President of the Chamber of Commerce, the Red Deer Planning Commission, the Mayor of Sundre for eleven years, a singer of renown at many a wedding or a funeral, the star tenor with the local Choralaires, he built houses with George Dobson and Walt Wrigley, owned a fabricated marble counter and sink business, owned the Sundre Creamery turned bottle depot, and he worked for ten years at Sundre Motors where he earned the moniker ”Good Deal Niel”. After a brief stint at Home Hardware, Niel retired so he could enjoy his passion for woodworking. He was a kind and loving man to all, generous to a fault and the job he loved the most was being a father, grandfather and great-grandfather.

Niel will be lovingly remembered by his five children; daughter Dianne, and son’s Andy, Brian, Rick, and Allan. He mourned deeply the loss of his wife Anna in 2017 and daughter Mary Lynn in 2022. Dad is the last of the eleven children in his family. His grandchildren and great-grandchildren will miss his smiles and hugs, and we will dearly miss the man who didn’t tell us how to live…he showed us. Rest well Dad.

“The world is diminished because he is gone, but it is still a better place because he was here.”

A Funeral Mass will Celebrated at Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Church, 123 2 St SW Sundre, Alberta on Saturday, January 10, 2026 at 2:00 p.m. If desired, Memorial Donations in Niel’s honor may be made directly to the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada at www.heartandstroke.ca.

Cremation entrusted to Heartland Funeral Services, Sundre, Alberta. Condolences, memories and photos may be shared and viewed at www.heartlandfuneralservices.com. Arrangements in care of Heartland Funeral Services (Sundre), 2A, 102 – 2 Street, Sundre, Alberta 403.638.4393.

• Date : 2026-01-10
• Location : (Sundre) Locally Family Owned (Red Deer/Blackfalds/Eckville) www.ParklandFuneralHome.com & (Innisfail/Olds/Didsbury/Sundre) www.HeartlandFuneralServices.com