Russell Coupland
With deep sadness, but also with satisfaction at a life well lived, the family of Russell Joseph Coupland say goodbye to a loving husband, father, brother and friend.
Russell Coupland passed away peacefully in his 91st year in the late evening of Monday, June 18th at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Comox.
He is survived by wife Maureen, sons and daughters, Clare, Karen, Coral and Calum, grandchildren, Ceara, Colin, Christopher, Kimberly, and Jerod, and sons-in-law John and Jim.
Born in Toronto in October 1916, Russell lived a life filled with the adventures of the 20th Century with an endurance and bright humour that won him many friends and admirers.
He rode the rails in the Dirty Thirties and gains a conviction for justice and fair play that would move him to a very active local political and community involvement in the Ottawa Valley and then the Comox Valley.
He joined the army at the first opportunity in 1940 and served in Sicily, Italy, France, Holland and Germany as a section leader. Many of his men would continue to call on him decades after.
After the war he met and married Maureen Welch and they cast about for a new life. That led them ultimately to a farm in the Ottawa Valley to raise purebred Aberdeen Angus cattle and to raise four children.
Upon retirement, Russ and Maureen Welch travelled Canada from one end to the other a half dozen times until they found a new home in the most perfect of places and on the most perfect of streets north of Seal Bay, Seacliff Road.
There, he would continue his active community involvement as a volunteer co-ordinator in Seal Bay Park. A trail is named in his honour for having helped revitalize the wonderful green oasis that is the park.
In lieu of flowers, Russell has asked that donations be made to Seal Bay Park in care of the Strathcona Regional District so that future generations will know the pleasures of the place that he did, please mark cheques in “Memory of Russell Coupland”. Funeral service will be held at 2:00 p.m., Monday, June 25, 2007 from COMOX VALLEY FUNERAL HOME & CREMATORIUM, 1101 RYAN ROAD. Followed by interment at Courtenay Civic Cemetery.
A celebration of Russell Coupland’s life will be announced at a later date.
If I should die before I wake
This is the statement I wish to make
To all of those who loved me best
Remember the Joy - forget the rest.
If there be those who loved me not
The less that’s said - soonest forgot
The path I chose that led me here
I walked in my own shoes.
thus my thoughts and attitudes
May differ from your views.
It matters not from where we start,
For if our cause is just
The world is blessed by what we’ve left
Although we are but dust
So who can say “this is the way”
When each must find the turning,
See your own dream without delay,
Don’t spend a lifetime yearning.
Take that first courageous step.
Be brave, you may soar high!
One chance at life is all we get;
Go, spread your wings and fly.