John W. Chudd

John Walter Chudd

With immense sadness, the family of Johnny Chudd acknowledge his sudden death in Gimli, April 9, 2018, age 85. 

Johnny was predeceased by his wife, Glady and son Calvin whose far too early deaths were losses from which he never fully recovered. He is deeply mourned and missed by his son Blair, daughter Cheryl Bailey, son-in-law Ross and grandsons Neil (Kym) and Craig (Zoe); Cal’s family: grand-daughters Chantal (Devon) and great grand-daughters Hayley and Dylynn, Kristen (Andreas) and grandson Tanner (Tamara).

Our Dad grew up and lived his entire life in Gimli. He farmed from his early teens, running and then purchasing a dairy operation. Hard work, determination and drive propelled him.  Dairy is a 24/7 job and, with cropping and other field work, he truly worked from sun-up to often long past sun-down.  Because he worked so hard, he expected those around him to also work hard; that was who he was. He made many friends and had all kinds of connections, and that led him to be asked to manage the Canada Agricultural Employment Services Office in Selkirk, which he did for over 15 years. He always joked that he could quit that job at any time because he still was a full-time farmer. His energy was amazing.

Our home was always a hub for family occasions and daily visits for coffee by neighbours and friends.  In our home at any time, there would be at least one live-in hired hand and assorted young cousins who spent summers working on the farm. When we were in our teens, our parents had foreign exchange students from around the world live and work with us and most of them are still “family” who have been back to visit and visited in return by Dad and Mom and us over the years. Dad always made a great impact on these relationships as he was full of knowledge, loved to tell stories about people and places in the area, and was open-hearted and generous. 

He had a life-long love of horses, and buying, selling and keeping horses became his “hobby” and business, especially after Mom died and he sold the dairy.  He operated his first riding academy in Gimli at age 13 and we grew up with a working team, ponies when we were little, and riding horses later on.  He enjoyed his horse business dealings with Amish people in Pennsylvania and Indiana, where he made many long-time friends and associates. He was appreciative of their way of life, to which he could relate having grown up in simpler times himself. He has many friends in the “horse community” in Canada, making numerous trips to the tracks in Edmonton and elsewhere.

He taught us the importance of being truthful, of caring and of doing one’s best. He dealt with many difficult and challenging things throughout his life and had a very strong sense of justice and amazing resilience. He was fiercely loyal once his trust was earned and his memory was acute.  He was proud of many deals made on the honour of a simple, firm, handshake.  His stories, especially over Sunday Suppers, brought the history of our community to vivid life and there was always much laughter. He was an independent, stubborn, strong, intelligent, tough and loving man with the best laugh ever. His death has left a void in our hearts forever, and we cherish having had him in our lives. He was a really, really good Dad and a much-loved Gpa who grew profoundly in his ability to show and express his love as his life progressed.

Sincere thanks for the care and compassion of Dr. RC Patel and dialysis staff at Selkirk, SOHC and HSC and to EMS.

A celebration of his life will be held at the Waterfront Centre in Gimli, Manitoba at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, April 21.

Memorial donations may be made to Oak Hammock Marsh Interpretive Centre, Lake Winnipeg Foundation or charity of choice.

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