This part of the adventure of life with David has come to the end. He lost his final battle with cancer on Friday, April 16, 2021 at Three Hills Hospital after giving it the best he had for 16 months. Stubborn and determined as he was, this was one battle that he was not destined to win.
David was born at Red Deer, Alberta to Thelma Marion (Ansley) and David Rolleston Grant, and for a number of years they lived in Edmonton before moving to Calgary where he finished his schooling. His early working years were spent as a department manager at The Bay and then as manager for the PMS Camera locations in Calgary. We met during this time through mutual friends in a CB radio club, and got to know each other at club get-togethers, walking in the rain, and riding dirt bikes in the Weaselhead area where he scared the living daylights out of me on a regular basis. Little did I know that his love of adrenaline was to make scaring me a permanent part of my life. He taught me to ski at Sunshine, where he was a member of the Ski Patrol, and I hugged every tree on the way down every slope we skied. I, Karen (Walker), signed on for the adventure of a lifetime and we were married at the Center Street United Church. Our honeymoon was spent rescuing stranded RV’ers on a mountain west of Calgary, and our first Christmas was spent at Sunshine Ski Resort where I watched as he rescued skiers from the chair life towers after the power went down
Circumstances brought us to the Red Deer area a year later and he became manager of Anderson’s Appliance Arcade where we formed a friendship with Floyd and Doris Anderson that would last a lifetime. A year after that we bought the farm east of Delburne and have been here ever since. Wood Lake was a welcoming and caring community and we made many life-long friends, and after David’s Dad was widowed, he joined us on the farm. Along with Kelly and David Ryan we ran a mixed hay and cow-calf operation for many years. David took his private pilot’s licence during those years, and found a love of aerobatic flying in an old single-engine, open-cockpit 1930’s Stearman biplane.
Working for someone else and having to deal with staff wasn’t David’s cup of tea, so D&K Appliance Repairs came into being in the early 1980’s. He loved driving around the countryside fixing people’s appliances, and getting to know everyone and learning the history of the area. Even with all the animals he encountered over the years the only one that ever gave him any grief was a huge hog that had the run of its farm and considered itself the protector of all it could see.
Teaching and medicine seemed to be part of the family gene pool. His mother, Thelma, was an elementary school teacher and his grand-father, David Reginald was a doctor, practicing in Red Deer in the later years of his career. The farm became the repository for a school bell which had been brought to Canada from Kansas by an ancestor who was a teacher. While neither became a career path for David, he was a Red Cross instructor for many years, along with being the driving force behind the Delburne Emergency Medical Response Team when he was Fire Chief of the Delburne Fire Department. He was a staunch supporter of S.T.A.R.S. as he saw first-hand the difference they could make in life and death situations, and how many people in our own area owed their lives to a life-flight.
He loved music and quickly learned how to play just about any instrument he picked up. This love has been passed on to our children and grand-children.
David’s love of history led many motorcycle excursions to find the ‘Railway Avenue’ which seemed to inhabit any pioneer town and usually was the home of the local museum. Abandoned towns, ghost towns, old mining towns, and places where there used to be towns were treasures to be explored and photographed, sometimes while keeping a wary eye out for the local wildlife.
His passion for photography was no secret and his many boxes of old cameras took up a lot of space in the basement. Photography spread into digital creation and it wasn’t uncommon to see him on the side of a road taking a picture of a rock, tree, branch, or just a piece of vegetation that would provide an ‘interesting background’ to one of his digital projects one day. Many of his photographic files would make no sense at all to anyone if they didn’t understand how his mind worked.
After his retirement from the Fire Department in 2000 we were able to take more time for travelling and spent the next 20 years exploring much of western Canada and the north-western United States in the summer and the south-western United States in the winter, all with a succession of Kawasaki Nomad motorcycles. After years of nomadic exploring, Golden Valley, Arizona became our home base for a few months each winter. We bought a small acreage and parked a fifth wheel on it to use as base camp for our motorcycle excursions. We met many people, and enjoyed exploring the sights, sounds and history to be found in Arizona, New Mexico, and California.
During this time his passion for politics came out, and many hours were spent campaigning for, and supporting friends who had decided to throw their hats in the political arenas ranging from municipal through to the provincial and federal levels.
Food always held a fascination for David, and any time we were in a new country or new town it wasn’t long before he’d found out where the locals ate and was happily experimenting with the local cuisine. Making big meals for family and friends mushroomed into a catering business in the last few years and he loved seeing people happy with his creations whether it was a rustic barbeque, a quilting retreat or a wedding. There wasn’t much that he wouldn’t experiment with in the smoker and it all turned out to be well worth the wait.
During this period his creative side turned to silver-smithing as he took the beautiful turquoise and corals and silver of the south-west that he loved so much and turned them into one-of-a-kind pieces of jewelry which he enjoyed making for friends and family.
David had no regrets for paths not taken, as he managed to hike down as many as he could find, but his greatest pride and joy has always been his children and grandchildren. He always wanted them to believe that they could do anything that they set their minds to doing, and to strive to be the best at whatever they did, and he led by example.
He leaves a hole in our hearts, and will be forever missed by his children: Kelly and Mac Kuziw, David Grant and Robyn Meissner, his six grand-children, his father David Grant and his wife Dearla, Aunt Maureen Hodgert, and numerous cousins in both Calgary and Edmonton as well as many friends who have become unofficial family over time.
We are planning a barbecue at the farm later this summer and are looking forward to seeing family and friends as we celebrate David’s life in the way he loved best.
D. Jaiyesimi (“Dr. Jay”) and all the staff at the Three Hills Hospital will always have my heartfelt thanks for the care and compassion that were shown to David during the last three months. If anyone desires, memorial contributions in David’s name could be made to the Three Hills Palliative Care Unit.
Final arrangements were entrusted to old friends, and I want to extend my gratitude to Brenda and Gord with Heartland Funeral Services Ltd., Innisfail.
“I will love and miss him forever. He truly was the wind beneath my wings.”
Condolences may be sent or viewed at www.heartlandfuneralservices.com. Arrangements in care of:
Heartland Funeral Services Ltd. 4415 – 49 Street, Innisfail, Alberta Phone: 403.227.0006 Fax: 403.227.6437

• Date : 2021-04-26
• Location : www.HeartlandFuneralServices.com - Innisfail/Olds/Didsbury/Sundre