Amady (Middy) Joseph Brillon

Amady (Middy) Joseph Brillon, 92, passed away peacefully Monday, April 6, 2026, surrounded by the loving care of his wife of 68 years Bernice and their four children, Wade, Donna, Jilaine and Michael. Born in High Prairie, Alberta on December 11, 1933, Middy grew up fast. His father, a First World War veteran, passed away when Middy and his brother Ken were teens.

In his first job, Middy worked helping his mother Kate raise mink on their Faust, Alberta farm, then joined a geophysical field crew after a family friend hired the young man to make a living and career mapping the subsurface geology across the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin and overseas. Middy’s early seismic assignments took him to remote locations across Western Canada, from southern Alberta to the northern reaches of the British Columbia.

After meeting Bernice at a community dance, the couple married on a snowy weekend in October 1957. They made homes in Edmonton and Faust. All four children were born in High Prairie. Project work in the United Kingdom North Sea and Africa took the family of six to live in Newcastle-on-Tyne and London, England, plus a brief posting to Tripoli, Libya. Middy and Bernice returned to Calgary in 1967. He joined Norcana Geophysical Services, where he ran field operations for 25 years and earned part ownership. With changes in seismic technology, Middy and his partners sold the business in 1992. Retirement saw Middy, a studious and judicious bridge player, join tables several times a week.

Raised on the shores of Lesser Slave Lake, Middy loved catching pickerel and whitefish near his boyhood home, Chinook and coho off the West Coast and downing Mallards and Canada geese across northern Alberta. Mornings found him tending manicured flower gardens and the occasional water feature. Evenings and holidays were filled with countless gatherings of family and friends, often cheering for Montreal’s Canadiens and Expos, then Toronto’s Blue Jays.

Middy is survived by his loving wife Bernice; children Wade (Sherri) Brillon, Donna (Don) Schaef, Jilaine (Alan) Boras and Michael (Monika) Brillon, all of Calgary; eight grandchildren Hayley Brillon, Hanna (Adam Le Dain) and Kathleen Schaef (Joel Nevokshonoff), Andrea (Calvin Marshall), Caresa and Kevin Boras, Jared and Faith Brillon; three great grandchildren Adelyn and Margot Marshall and William Le Dain; his sister-in-law Kathy Brillon and his nephews Keith and Kirk (Andreah Barker) Brillon. Middy was predeceased by his parents Amady and Kathleen Brillon and his brother Ken Brillon.

Middy’s family thanks Calgary’s kind and compassionate health care professionals who cared for him over the past year as his health declined incrementally due to natural aging.

A Funeral Mass  is scheduled for Friday, June 12, 2026, at 11 a.m. at St. Gerard’s Catholic Church, 8944 Elbow Drive S.W. Calgary.

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