Robert Marshall Hawley

On Wednesday Feb 8^th, 2017 at 9:30 Bob Hawley passed away.  He had suffered for the last three years with dementia but was in a home and very happy in his world.  Right to the end if you stopped in to visit dad at the home and asked him how his day was he would almost always say it had been good, and he would have grand stories to tell you regarding everything he had worked on that day.  From fixing motors to running wiring for lights.  On the odd day he would say he hadn’t had a good day and you asked him why he would say a car had broken down and he couldn’t find parts or that he hadn’t been able to solve some mechanical problem.

Dad was a fighter, there was no adversity he could not overcome.  At the age of ten he was shot point blank in the knee with a 12 gauge shotgun while out hunting in the marsh with his older brother Ted.  It was the war years and medicine wasn’t what it was today.  He had no pulse by the time they got him to Winnipeg and his odds of survival were bleak.  By the time they stabilized him he was conscious and they told him they would have to remove his leg.  Dad insisted they keep the leg and they did but they told him he would never walk.  Dad proved them wrong, first with crutches and eventually on his own.  Dad left school in grade ten and went to work in the elevator trade but soon grew restless.  The age of TV was upon the world and dad got a job with CBC.  He loved the work and learned as he went, eventually becoming a Lighting Director and Technical Producer.  Dad was a tinkerer and he could fix anything.  He could strip an engine down with a flat head screwdriver and a crescent wrench and put it back together and it would run better than it did the day it left the factory.  He never let anything get in his way, including designing a pedal for a ten speed bike that allowed him to ride even though he could not bend one leg.

Now unlike most of us, dad didn’t meet that special lady in his teens or early twenties.  Dad caught the eye of the girl he would spend his entire life with at a Tally Ho…when he was nine!  Mom and dad led a full life, having built three homes and two cabins, from scratch.  I don’t mean they oversaw contractors, I mean they tied every piece of rebar in the concrete and pounded every nail.

Dad loved the cabin, Lake of the Woods, mom and dad cut the mile long road in off the highway to their property by hand (axes and Swede saws), when they were sixteen.  Mom and dad spent their time there and in Florida during their retirement years.

Dad will be sadly missed by his wife of 61 years – Diana, sons Jerry (Cheryl and grandsons Christopher and Ryan) and Jeff (Tammy and granddaughter Sarah).  Thank you to the wonderful nurses and staff at the Kenora Hospital and Pine Crest nursing home.

A celebration of dad’s life will be held at 1:00 pm on Friday, February 17^th at Sobering Funeral Chapel, 1035 Park Ave E, Beausejour Mb.

In lieu of flowers, donations in Bob’s memory may be made to a charity of your choice.

www.soberingfuneralchapel.com

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