ANDE ANDERSON, CD

ANDE ANDERSON, CD January 3, 1939 ~ October 2, 2023
It is with heavy hearts that the family of George ‘Ande’ Francis Anderson announce his passing on the morning of Monday, October 2, 2023, in Medicine Hat. He leaves behind his four children, Russell (Deanna), Howard (Norma), Douglas (Sheila), and Ronald (Christine); many grandchildren as well as his sister, Gloria (Tom). He was predeceased by his wife of 52 years, Shireen in 2011, as well as his brother, Harold (Jan).
Ande was born on the 3rd of January, 1939, in Grand Forks B.C., to Arvid and Ruth Anderson and was the eldest of three children. He met Shireen in Ottawa while serving in the Royal Canadian Air Force and while stationed in Ottawa, they started their family. Ande spent 28 years in the RCAF, enjoying various postings across Canada, from British Columbia, (Aldergrove and Masset), to New Brunswick, (St. Margarets) and many points in between, Ontario (Ottawa and North Bay), Quebec (Bagotville) and to the edge of the arctic at the point of James Bay, Moosonee (Ontario) twice.
Ande had few hobbies but maintained passionate love for his first hobbies, amateur radio or HAM radio. You could usually tell Ande’s place by the antennas jutting into the sky for the different radio bands that were used to keep in touch with his many global friends. He was proud of talking or sending morse code to people in distant countries around the globe LONG before the internet was even conceived.
Ande spent many hours in his ‘HAM SHACK’ talking to old friends and new contacts. He often provided services to Military members overseas allowing them to talk to loved ones across Canada via HAM radio phone patches. He was offered the opportunity to serve in the Middle East, as a temporary posting, at the other end of these conversations. Ande spent six months in the Golan Heights operating HAM radios, (and other duties), to allow serving military to chat with loved ones back home, including talking to Shireen, and would have her occasionally operate the phone patch in Canada to connect them to their families.
Ande retired from the military while posted to CFS Masset and moved to Aldergrove BC. They remained there for several years until the cost of living so close to Vancouver eventually forced them to relocate. In 1994, after investigating the low cost of living in Alberta, Shireen sent inquiries to three mid sized cities, Red Deer, Lethbridge and Medicine Hat. Receiving only one serious reply, Ande packed up his family, pets, furniture and radios and moved to an acreage just outside of Medicine Hat. Being an Albertan for over 30 years, fighting and surviving prostate and bone cancer, enjoying blue skies, long sunny summer days, and land to set up more antennas. While he loved BC, Alberta became his home. He is and will be missed, George ‘Ande’ Anderson, CD ‐ VE6WT ‘Silent key’.
Memorial services will be announced a later date, most likely in the new year. (Condolences may be expressed by visiting 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”