Michael Nicholas Kurczaba

Michael Nicholas Kurczaba was born on March 26, 1927, at the General Hospital in Calgary, the second of three children. In the spring of 1930, his family moved to Lake Louise, where his father, Nicola, had obtained work as a section foreman with the CPR. Mike’s childhood years in Lake Louise shaped his enduring love of the mountains. In these memorable years, he thrived on the fresh mountain air, the close knit community and the many remarkable adventures he shared with his sisters, Mary and Karol, his best friend Doug and the handful of other local children. For eleven years, the mountains were his playground, and it was there that he learned to ski, went fishing on the Pipestone River, and spent happy summers roaming the back country, always with an eye out for bears!

When Mike was not enjoying the great outdoors, he attended classes in the village’s one room schoolhouse, where his natural scholastic ability, combined with an incredibly absorbent mind, led to a lifelong passion for learning. He became an avid reader with an eventual penchant for Louis L’Amour westerns and books about the Canadian Rockies.

Education was important to Mike’s father, so when Canada became involved in the Second World War and the village of Lake Louise was in danger of needing to close Laggan School, where Mike was a student, the family relocated, first to Innisfail, then to Bowden. Moving from the mountains to the prairies was a huge adjustment for Mike. Baseball and softball took the place of fishing and hiking in the summer months, and in winter, skiing was replaced with hockey and curling. After team practices, Mike and his friends would gather at the local barbershop and pool hall, where Mike quickly became adept at billiards. He played infrequently once he left Bowden, but never lost the skill that he had developed playing countless games of pea pool with his teenaged friends.

A shortage of workers during the war years created many opportunities for young Mike to develop skills at a variety of jobs. He worked at the drugstore in Bowden, where he developed a fondness for freshly baked pies, especially flapper pie and lemon meringue. He also helped to make butter at the local dairy, and in summer, he worked at the airport, spinning blades on the prop planes and rolling aircraft onto and off of the tarmac. He loved the idea of becoming a pilot, but during the war, the town of Bowden was designated as a ‘tank town’, so he never got the opportunity to learn to fly an aircraft. Instead, he volunteered with the 14th Calgary Anti-Tank Light Infantry Unit, despite being just a little too young for active service, and as with so many other things in Mike’s life, he excelled when it came to accuracy with munitions. Mike was fortunate, though, where many young men in those difficult years were not: The war ended before military service became a reality, so Mike never had to participate in active duty. He surrendered his uniform and army equipment and moved on with his life.

While in Bowden, Mike maintained his love of learning, achieving top marks in his classes, so once he completed grade 12, he was offered a position as a rural school teacher. His real interest, though, lay in mathematics and sciences. He had planned to pursue a career in engineering, but it was difficult for graduating students to obtain seats in post-secondary schools once soldiers began returning from the war, so at the age of nineteen, Mike opted to attend Business College in Calgary instead. Upon graduation, he worked for a short time in the sales department at Robin Hood Mills, and then in the electric light department at the City of Calgary before finally becoming a Registered Industrial Accountant and moving into the tax department. He remained with the City until he retired in March, 1982, rising into a managerial position, and then heading up the tax department for the final thirteen years of his career.

It was during his time in Calgary that Mike discovered golf – a game that would bring him pleasure well into his late 80s. Those who golfed with Mike were privileged to share in his passion for the game, but they also had to exercise stoic patience, as Mike was forever combing the underbrush for lost balls, which he diligently cleaned, categorized, and stored, frequently gifting them to family members who also enjoyed the game. He also renewed his passion for the game of Bridge, which he had learned from watching his parents play in Lake Louise. As with anything else that involved memory and mathematics, Mike demonstrated that he was innately gifted when it came to this particular game. Rumour has it that he was also intensely competitive!

Around this same time, Mike also discovered love. He was introduced to Olga at the wedding of his sister, Mary, and on May 9, 1953, Mike and Olga were married. Together, they built a fine house where they raised three loving children as well as an annual crop of delicious vegetables! While both Mike and Olga possessed green thumbs when it came to gardening, Mike took particular pride in carefully tending his tomatoes, his flowers, and a pristine lawn that was the envy of the neighbourhood! A testament to Mike’s love for the home that he and Olga created is that they shared 67 wonderful years there together before he passed away last Saturday.

Mike was a long-standing member of St. Vladimir’s Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Calgary. He was there most Sundays and was an active part of the Church community, always helping out where he could. He was an active participant in the Seniors group for many years, most recently putting his excellent accounting skills to good use as Treasurer. Many of his wonderful friends and acquaintances were part of this important community.

Mike’s legacy to his family will live on in the many memories they have of him. For those of you who may not know, he was at least as good a detective as his favourite television character,‘Colombo’, so it was no use to try to pull the wool over his eyes. He would know in an instant, for example, if you borrowed his vehicle, and then returned it with even the tiniest new scratch in the paint! Mike had a great affinity for the outdoors and loved to chop wood, build campfires, and share stories of the early explorers who had carved trails through the Rockies. He was also meticulous in many ways, as demonstrated by his precisely hand-written tax forms, neatly polished shoes, and carefully stored tools. In fact, Mike had at least one tool for every possible job. A believer in the adage that “things aren’t made like they used to be”, he was always anxious to fix anything that fell apart in the hope of extending its lifespan. This included fashioning new electric elements for Olga’s ancient, but beautiful, kitchen stove and carving a new clasp out of wood for their refrigerator door when the handle finally broke. It worked like a charm! If a box of any particular size was needed, Mike would be sure to manufacture one that was a perfect fit for the intended contents.

Mike could be a bit of an enigma: he loved his water ice cold and his food lukewarm, he despised strawberries but enjoyed strawberry jam on his toast, and he once built a beautiful canoe from scratch, complete with paddles, which he never actually set afloat. To this day, that beautiful craft hangs suspended from the rafters in his garage, waiting for the day when its prow can cut through cool ripples on a mountain lake.

Mike always had a limitless supply of mints in his car, which he liberally consumed, and which were a much anticipated treat for his children and grandchildren, and whenever he announced that he had ‘baked’, it meant that the cookie jar was full of store-bought gingersnaps. Mike enjoyed board games, especially Cribbage and Scrabble. It was rare that he would complete a game of Scrabble without getting rid of all 7 letters at least once. He was always gracious if he didn’t win, but his somewhat competitive nature also meant that he was always ready for a rematch! Mike loved cars, and he was particularly fond of finding the perfect used car for different members of the family. If asked, Mike would inevitably peruse the want ads and case the dealerships until he came up with a pristine vehicle that had low mileage and a low price tag to match! He was amazing!

Mike was a hero to his family for many reasons, but in part because he was reliable, dependable, and honest, and it seemed that there was never any problem that he couldn’t solve. It was with great sadness, therefore, that he recently came to face the fact that he could not fix the one thing that stood between himself and his beloved wife, home, and family – a failing heart. He rallied as best he could, but he was unable to prevail. While his body may have let him down in the end, the essence of his spirit and the abiding love he had for each and every one of us will continue to live on. In the words of his favourite author, Louis L’Amour, “When I die, remember that what you knew of me is with you always. What is buried is only the shell of what was. Do not regret the shell, but remember the man.” Mike, you will, indeed, be forever loved and remembered.

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