Obituary of Randy Alex Gunderson

The family of Randy Gunderson are deeply saddened to announce Randy's sudden passing on January 27th, 2007 in Mannville, AB at the age of 46 years. He was born on May 18th, 1960 in Spiritwood, SK to Jeffrey and Pat Gunderson. Randy met Debbie Strate at Shell Lake in the spring of 1977. They were married in Spiritwood on July 10, 1982. Their son, Gavin, was born on January 22, 1984 and daughter Ashley was born on December 11, 1984. The family lived in Spiritwood until the spring of 1986 when they moved to Calgary and lived there until spring 1988. They then moved to Vermilion and in August 2000, they moved to an acreage south of Mannville. Randy was a very hard worker and had an uncompromising work ethic. He worked in the seismic industry from the time he was 16 until he was 44. On his off time from the rigs, he did stucco and drywall. In 1994 he went into partnership with a former worker and purchased his own seismic rig and later went on his own. In July of 2005, he started driving a picker truck doing hot shot service until April 2006 when he got a job in Mannville at 4-Lane Manufacturing assembling camp trailers. Randy loved to cook, and became very good at it. The family was always treated to some special dish when he would do the cooking. Randy loved animals and was happiest when he could just go out to the barn and observe what they were doing. He loved the acreage and tried his hand at raising everything from pigs to stray cats. He will be remembered and sadly missed by his loving wife Debbie, his children Gavin and Ashley, his mother Pat Gunderson, his sister Kathy (Dan) Bumstead and their children Adam Gunderson and Taylor Bumstead, his brother Jayson Gunderson (Terry-Lynn Pacholzuk) and his son Brett Gunderson, his mother in-law Esther Strate, his brother and sister in-laws Elaine Strate, Joyce Strate (Del), Sharon (Ken) Cameron, Ron (Donna) Strate, Carol (Albert) Francoeur, Jocelyn (Trende) Stene, and Darcy (Janice) Strate. He was predeceased by his brothers Ken and Wade, his father Jeffrey, his father in-law Garnett Strate and his special friend and companion Guido. The funeral service was held on Friday, February 2nd, 2007 at 1 p.m. from the Spiritwood Civic Centre with Rev. Peter Boote as the officiant. A tribute was given by Dwayne Strate and the eulogy was read by Todd Field and Ken Shira. Gilles Francouer was the soloist singing One Day at a Time. The honorary pall bearers were all relatives and friends who shared in Randy's life and the active pall bearers were Dave Groat, Troy Stene, Dorin Stene, Grant Schweitzer, David Doucette and Trent Clark. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Saskatchewan SPCA Box 37 Saskatoon, S7K 3K1. Randy was laid to rest in the Scandia Cemetery.