ALLAN MCLEOD

ALLAN MCLEOD December 26, 1936 ~ September 1, 2023
The footprint may be gone . . . But excluding a recent half-decade of invasive health issues, my life has been a long and remarkable journey of personal fulfillment, including a family code of love and togetherness. Who could ask for more.
Most important, by far, has been the support and devotion of Rae, my wife of sixty-three years. It has been Rae’s dedication to our marriage that has permitted the accomplishments we have enjoyed. Our biggest gift of all has been our three children, Tracy (Jerry Hensel – deceased), Carrie Rae (Owen Saunders) and John (Shelley), all solidly grounded and successful in their chosen endeavors. They have also given us five (now adult) grandchildren and one great-grandchild to gaze upon with pride.
I see my life in three distinct phases, beginning in 1936 on the cusp of World War II as the first born to Germaine (Sebille) and Cecil McLeod, a couple struggling with drought and depression on a farm near Bow Island. The next fifteen years witnessed a return of rain and crops and victory in the war, all of which I was then old enough to appreciate. I had also seen Dad’s aggressive expansion of our land base which created the financial wherewithal to move and operate from a home in Medicine Hat.
It was in the city in June, 1955 at age 18 that I wrote the last of my grade 12 finals, followed five days later by swearing an oath to begin life in Canada’s national police force. My RCMP years included a diverse array of Canada-wide assignments that drove my career onward and upward. It was 20 years that extended from BC’s Lower Mainland to a one-man posting in Canada’s Arctic to the lofty setting of HQ Ottawa as a departmental head caught in the bureaucratic shuffle of bilingual overreach.
Phase two began with my early retirement in 1975 to embark on a new and uncharted path, a final transfer of our family to put down roots in the land of my youth near Bow Island. The underlying motive was to establish ourselves in private business. Some saw the decision as questionable given our beautiful Ottawa home and opportunities presented by my early commission, but our Alberta heritage won the day. We were destined to begin life anew on the barren and treeless landscape of my family’s long-abandoned farm where the only signs of current habitation were a rope-and-pulley water well, a rustic machine shop, and a fading two-holer standing alone in a yard of derelict outbuildings. Even the rural electrical grid would need a mile of poles and wire to reach the farm.
Despite the obstacles, within 20+ years we had carved out a park-like home setting with trees and modern facilities, at the same time embarking on a business program anchored by the farm that grew into the ownership of a Ford-Lincoln car/truck dealership in Medicine Hat. Steps in getting there had included a three-year co-ownership of an insurance agency, the start-up and eventual closure of a local Ford outlet, and fourteen years as owner/operator of a small real estate office.
With our son ready to buy out the city Ford store, we stepped back from active business in 1995 to begin phase three, this time in semi-retirement hoping for a financial return in my long-held passion for writing. Between summers at Elkwater Lake and winters touring Roatan Island or US Border States, I wrote two books over the next few years. The first was titled “Willful Blindness,” a 1960s true crime kidnap/murder story from the Yukon, the second, “It’s All About Money,” a novel of narcissistic illusion and violence. Regrettably, neither reached the lofty bar of success set by publishers.
But I wasn’t yet ready to quit. I had also created a rambling memoir of 900 pages that became a ten-part outline of our family’s history up to 1995, including personal issues we had faced and some of the more memorable cases from my RCMP years. I titled the consolidated manuscript “A Look Back.”
There will be no funeral upon my passing, just a bundle of ashes and a couple of drawers of unpublished writings to mark the end of phase three of a long and grateful life.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Safety City, Box 1145, Medicine Hat, AB., T1B 1A1, or the Salvation Army, 164 Stratton Way S.E., Medicine Hat, AB., T1B 3R3, as these were Allan’s charities of choice. Condolences may be expressed at www.cooksouthland.com Honoured to serve the family is


Cook Southland Funeral
Chapel Crematorium &
Reception Facility
901 – 13th Street S.W.
Medicine Hat, Alberta T1A 4V4
Phone 403-527-6455
www.cooksouthland.com
“Locally owned & directed”