Gerald George Key

KEY, Gerald George passed peacefully February 6, 2021 in Penticton, BC and leaves to mourn his wife Violet (McInnis), his daughter Jill of Alberta, and his sons Kevin, Richard and Jason of British Columbia. He was predeceased by his son Ernest (2008), and his first wife Julia (Waldowski), who passed in 2011. The youngest of a family of eight, he was also predeceased by his mother Florence and father Ernest, his brothers Daniel, Lester and Wallace, and sisters, Norma, Phylis, Opal and Eileen, and leaves numerous nieces and nephews.

Jerry was born in Hughenden, Alberta on November 16, 1928, of a father of English ancestry (born in Ontario) and a mother of Norwegian (born in Florence, Washington State). He raised his family in Saint Albert, Alberta where he held roles in the community, particularly with the Lions Club. A coastal Kwakiutl-carved totem pole he preserved and painted stood at the entrance to Lions Park for a third of a century. He was renowned for donating blood, and consistently gave to the Canadian Red Cross for so long, they did not have an award pin as high as the numbers of years he had donated. He worked professionally in the Edmonton area as well as Richmond, BC, where he retired, and spent five years with the Coast Guard Auxiliary, before retiring to the Okanagan in 1996.

Jerry rests with his son Ernest, who he also predeceased, in the Lakeview Cemetery, overlooking Okanagan Lake. The family thanks the staff at the hemo-dialysis unit at the Penticton Hospital for their years of care to Jerry, and donations may be made to a kidney cause.