ALCOCK, Wayne Gerard

June 2, 1941 — January 20, 2023

With deep sadness, the family of Wayne Gerard Alcock shares the news of his passing on January 20, 2023, in Kelowna, BC.

Wayne was born in Vancouver, BC on June 2, 1941, to Frederick and Alice Alcock. His family moved to Kelowna in 1948, and Wayne grew up as one of six boys in a close-knit family.

Wayne’s father taught his boys to hunt, fish, and forage, inspiring his lifelong love of the outdoors. Wayne’s favourite childhood memories included Sunday picnics along upper Mill Creek where the trout were plentiful, and the wild strawberries grew in abundance. Wayne’s keen sense of competition and luck became family lore, as he always seemed to catch the biggest fish.  Later, Wayne shared his love of the outdoors with his own young family, taking them fishing and hiking around local lakes, creeks, and trails, on Sunday drives to explore abandoned homesteads and teaching them about natural and local history.

After graduating from Kelowna Senior High School in 1959, Wayne briefly worked at Fruit Growers Mutual Insurance before he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1960, and completed basic training at Canadian Forces Base Borden in Barrie, Ontario.

While on leave and visiting the Okanagan, Wayne met his first wife, Yvette. They were married in 1962 and moved to Edmonton, where he was stationed, and his daughters Marcia and Kimberley were subsequently born. He was transferred to the Air Force base in Winnipeg in 1967, where his daughters (Kathryn) Paige and Nicole were born.

While serving in the air force, Wayne travelled the NATO and NORAD world in Northern Europe and the Arctic, including Greenland, Iceland, and Norway, as an aeronautical engineer. Every year, he was part of the Air Force Santa Claus runs to Northern Canada, where he dropped Christmas gifts and food by parachute to isolated Northern Canadian towns.

Wayne pursued a degree in education while stationed with the air force In Winnipeg; he studied at the University of Manitoba and graduated with an Associate Degree in Education in May of 1972.

In August of 1972, Wayne and his wife hitched up a trailer to his 1964 Buick Electra, and travelled with their daughters, across the prairies and back west to the Okanagan Valley.  In Kelowna, he worked as a substitute schoolteacher for the 1972-1973 school year, and through his in-laws he was introduced to the prospect and trade of welding.

Wayne completed his first welding ticket near the end of 1973 and then became a member of the Boilermakers Union (lodge 359). For many years, he worked away from home on projects throughout BC and Alberta, including the Mica Dam in Revelstoke.

Wayne excelled in all that he did and found joy in sharing his skills and love of learning with others. In 1977, he moved his family to Victoria, BC to teach welding at Camosun College. In 1978, the family returned to Kelowna, where Wayne eventually secured a position teaching welding at Okanagan College in Kelowna. Wayne was a passionate instructor who revelled in his role as a mentor to his students. Through the years, he continued teaching welding at Okanagan College, he developed strong ties to the community, and retired in 2005.

Wayne met his future wife Bonnie in Kelowna in 1988, and they married in 1991. She remained his loving companion and best friend until his passing.

Wayne had a lifelong passion for sports and fitness. He took the 5BX air force fitness program seriously and stayed very active for his entire life. A great fan of the Kelowna Rockets and Vancouver Canucks, he played recreational hockey when he was younger, and was passionate about racquetball from the time he was in his thirties until he stopped playing just before his eighty-first birthday. Perhaps, even more than the sport, Wayne enjoyed the camaraderie and lasting friendships he and Bonnie forged during his racquetball years.

During recovery from a racquetball injury, Wayne took up cycling, rediscovering this passion from his youth, and in 2012 he made the first of two cycling trips in Europe with a small group of his close friends, starting in Amsterdam and finishing in Zurich, Switzerland. Wayne was an excellent rider, even with a few German beers in him!

Wayne’s second cycling trip was in the autumn of 2015. Starting from Normandy, his group biked the Allied Landing Beaches across the English Channel. The friends then cycled throughout southern France. On average, at the age of 74, Wayne was cycling 20 to 50 kilometers per day.

Wayne took great pleasure in the natural world, and his retirement years focused not just on staying active in competitive sports, but in exploring the great outdoors. With his friends, he took annual hunting trips around BC for elk, deer, and moose. He also went on fishing expeditions across the province for halibut, and fly-fishing for salmon. He was a craftsman, making his own flies as his father had taught him. As is in his youth, Wayne always took pleasure in hauling in the biggest catch of the day.

During his retirement years, Wayne and Bonnie enjoyed having more time for camping, fishing, taking a few winter sun vacations, and travelling near and far to visit family. In addition to having more visiting time with his daughters and grandchildren, Wayne fulfilled a long time wish, when he and Bonnie were able to take an extended trip to Australia to visit his brother Steve, sister-in-law Tricia, and their family.

Wayne is survived by his loving wife, Bonnie; daughters Marcia (Robert), Kimberley Paige (Rob), Nicole, and stepdaughter Tracey (Tony); grandchildren Marc, Jonathan (Michelle), Adam (Carolann), Kieran, Grace (Grey), and Calvin; great-granddaughter Abigail; brothers Dale (Elaine), Stephen (Tricia), Jonathan (Sharon), and Douglas (Janet); brothers-in-law Ken (Brent), Ron (Randall) and sister-in-law Sharon (Barry). He was predeceased by his parents Fred and Alice; brother Barry (Brenda); and stepson Cory.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation in Wayne’s memory, to the Heart and Stroke Foundation, www.heartandstroke.ca.

Please join us to remember Wayne at a Celebration of Life on FRIDAY, APRIL 28, 2023, at 1:00 PM, at SPRINGFIELD FUNERAL HOME FAMILY CENTRE, 2020 Springfield Road, Kelowna, BC.  If you are unable to attend in person, please join the family online by Livestream at the time of the service (see below), a recording will be made available to view shortly thereafter.

If you wish to send a condolence, post photos, or share a memory, please scroll down the page to the area called “Condolences”.

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