William (Bill) Bryan Weisenburger

William (Bill) Bryan Weisenburger

On August 8th 2025, William Bryan Weisenburger (Bill, ‘Captain Bill’, or ‘hey you’), passed at 78 in the Red Deer Hospice holding the hand of wife and best friend Jan (‘Spunky’) and smiling into the eyes of his sons Chris and Cory. In the preceding moments he said, especially through humour, all the messages of love that he needed to say and that they needed to hear. He also left grass cutting instructions. He did it ‘his way’, as he always did.

In his final days, Spunky read him literally a binder of messages from family, friends, and colleagues in response to a letter he penned before entering the hospice. In the letter he shared the journey of his life, his gratitude and his difficult health woes which restricted his usual social butterflying over the last 3 years of his life. He found a way to attend his own funeral, which is fitting given his preference not to have a gathering following his death.

Sharing, as he did in that letter, was typical for Bill. He was uncommonly open and willing to share things others hold in reservation. If you did something right or wrong, you were likely to hear about it in a long letter with lots of capitalization. He got great joy sharing his pride in his boys’ successes, sharing CDs he created from thousands of jokes he received by email and retyped and giving mints he pocketed from restaurant bowls to his health care workers (especially the health care workers at Elnora, Red Deer Dialysis and the Hospice whom he deeply appreciated). Perhaps the greatest way he shared his love to the boys was by encouraging them to make their own decisions irrespective of his preferences.

He had the deepest gratitude for Al Gehring and June Miller who, after Bill lost his father and spent time in a boys’ home in Calgary, welcomed him at age 15 into their home in his hometown of Trochu. He learned survival, hard work and stubborn perseverance which he proudly deployed in his 30 years with the Calgary Fire Department (CFD), retiring as Captain.

When he was not in the fire hall (or driving truck or otherwise moonlighting) he was deep into his projects and make-work projects such as his cabin (which he built, plumbed and wired himself), Weisenburger family history books, contact directories and calendars he created, a 16 year successful opposition to a proposed landfill at Pine Lake (becoming lifelong friends with the Schalin family), and capturing the CFD history in books with legendary Albertan Grant MacEwan, to which he would become a dear friend, aid and eventual pallbearer.

His largest project, in his words, was ‘completing’ 51+ years of marriage to Spunky. He would be the first to say that it was Jan’s unconditional love that truly helped him grow from his early years. After retirement Jan and Bill were able to see more of the world with their boys and with Cory’s wife Jo Lynn.

Bill is survived by his brother Ken and was predeceased by his sister Jeannette, brother Donald, father Emil, mother Bernadette (who was a dear grandmother to Chris and Cory in her final years) and cat Columba. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Red Deer Hospice.

At Bill’s request, his ashes will be buried in an empty paint pail to be acquired from Penhold Building Supplies, which he specified must be new.

He often said, “I may not have been the best husband and father, but I was the best I could be”. We think he did pretty damn good and this dear ‘character’ will be missed. If there is a heaven, we have no doubts he has already provided some grass cutting suggestions up there.