Sales manager, community activist.
Born at Smoky Lake, Alberta, on 15 August 1923, he was the second son of Barbara Cromarty and William Buchanan. Because his father was a member of the Alberta Provincial Police and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the family moved from Leduc to Edmonton, and then in 1935 to Calgary, where he completed his schooling at Crescent Heights High School and excelled in basketball and football.
During the Second World War, he joined the Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve, where he spent many days on corvettes and frigates as a Gunnery Officer during the Battle of the Atlantic. Following the end of the war, he helped organize and play football with the Calgary Stampeders, and remained a supporter all his life, becoming involved with the Stampede Queen contest and the Stampede Board. He worked for International Harvester until 1951, and then for 36 years with Federated Insurance, being twice transferred to Winnipeg (1955-1959, 1964-1987) before retirement as the Canadian Sales Manager.
On 31 May 1945, he married Margaret Louise “Marg” Mainwaring (1925-1995) at Calgary, Alberta and they had five daughters and one son together. He was an active member of a philanthropic organization called the Associated Canadian Travellers, mainly in Calgary. In Winnipeg, he was active with the Naval Officers Association, White Ensign Club, and Naval Museum of Manitoba. He enjoyed gardening, curling, golf, hunting, fly fishing, and riding horses. In his younger days, he spent summers at the homestead of his Cromarty grandparents along the old Victoria Trail west of Pakan, Alberta. That farm was later purchased by the Metis Association of Alberta and is recognized as a national heritage site.
He died at Winnipeg on 4 September 2005 and was buried at Calgary in the Field of Honour at Queen’s Park Cemetery.
Obituary [Margaret Louise Buchanan], Winnipeg Free Press, 11 May 1995, page 32.
Obituary, Calgary Herald, 9 September 2005.
We thank Bruce Buchanan for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Lois Braun.
Page revised: 19 August 2023
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