Alan Roy Killian

On August 8, 2021, the world lost a very lovely soul, being Alan Roy Killian. Alan was born on February 8th, 1961, in Edmonton, Alberta to Roy and Georgina Killian. He had wished for a sibling and 4 years later Karen was born, making the family complete. Alan was an avid athlete playing many competitive sports including hockey, baseball and golf. After graduating from NAIT with a Civil Engineering degree, Alan was again drawn to his love of sports and in 1984 became a golf professional with the PGA of Canada. His golf career began at the Kananaskis Golf & Country Club, and he would go on to have a 20-year career as a head golf professional in Calgary, culminating with many wonderful years at the Inglewood Golf Club. Beyond his love for playing, Al’s passion was teaching golfers the skills to improve their golf game and thereby their enjoyment of the game. Once his golf career ended, he would go on to reinvent himself and became a Certified Financial Planner with Investors Group where he could continue to teach and support others, but this time in the realm of finance.

In 1984, while working in Kananaskis, Alan met the love of his life, Brigitte (Ollivier). They married in 1989 and went on to have three beautiful daughters, being Danielle (fiancé Vince), Robyn (fiancé Keegan), and Devyn. Al was an incredible husband and father who always put his family first. As a family, the Killian’s were blessed to travel to many destinations near and far. Such adventures included many camping weekends, golf trips, hikes (including an epic West Coast trail trip), travel for many dance competitions, and sunny destination vacations.

In 2013, Alan had a substantial health setback when he was diagnosed with an aggressive meningioma brain tumour. Since that time, he has had numerous surgeries under the care of Dr. Garnette Sutherland, and his exceptional neurosurgical team. Those procedures helped immeasurably to mitigate the adversity of his condition while optimizing his quality of health. Thank you Dr. Sutherland! Minor medical miracles aside, Alan’s day-to-day challenges were nonetheless substantial, most especially in the last two years, but he approached his life with a spirit of positivity, humour, strength, and unstoppable courage. He was never one to complain or give up. He was often heard saying “I can’t complain since I’m still on the right side of the grass”.

Alan was a simple man who made friends everywhere he went, always saw only the best in people and lead his life with an aim to make everyone’s day better, often using laughter. In his life journey, Alan nurtured the development of a deep faith and love of Jesus Christ that he readily shared with those he met. He will be remembered for his gentle and kind heart, his contagious optimism and bravery, his quick wit, his patience, his compassion and his ability to love freely and wholeheartedly. Alan valued life at all stages and pursued all moments and relationships.

Besides his nuclear family, Alan is survived by his father Roy, his sister Karen Pelletier (Guy), and many nieces and nephews. Alan’s many loving family members all have a soothing comfort knowing that he is in the loving hands of our Lord, as well as surrounded by all those who have preceded him. As his girls recently mentioned: “Dad please try not to be late for your tee time in Paradise and enjoy seeing the view! We love you, always and forever.”

There will be a celebration of Alan’s glorious life, to be held on Thursday, August 19th, 2021, at the Deerfoot Meadows location of the Shark Club Sports Bar & Grill, the address being: 7995 11 Street S.E., Calgary. The event will run from 2:00 pm to 6:00 pm and all friends and family are invited to come at their leisure. The Killian family asks that if you have a memory or story to share involving Alan, to please bring a written copy to drop off in a collection box, as in the months and years to come they will treasure the chance to read them again and again. In addition, you may know that Alan was perhaps the world’s greatest air drummer and guitarist. Needless to say Alan loved music, dancing like no one was watching, and he put together a “Celebration of Life” playlist which you can access on Spotify under his Alanrkillian account.  

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation in memory of Alan, to Youth on Course Alberta through AlbertaGolf.org, supporting increased access for all youth interested in playing golf in Alberta (https://secure.e2rm.com/registrant/DonationPage.aspx?EventID=346223&LangPref=en-CA&Referrer=https%3a%2f%2fadmin.e2rm.com%2f).

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