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In memory of

Daniel "Dan" Gerald McGauley

Kelowna, BC, Canada

1944 - December 5, 2020

1944 - Dec 5, 2020

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With deep sadness in our hearts, we announce the loss of our wonderful father and husband, Daniel Gerald McGauley III. After a brave and arduous battle with ongoing health complications, Dan peacefully took his last breath surrounded by his wife Louise and children Dan Jr. and Genevieve at Hospice House in Kelowna, BC at 8:05 am on December 5,2020.

Dan was born to parents Pat & Ged McGauley in 1944 in Trail, BC. After graduating from JL Crowe High School, he received his formal post-secondary education at the School of Hard Knocks. At least that’s what he told everyone. An adventurous and free spirit, after learning the ropes of the family concrete business, McGauley Ready Mix, he headed to Toronto to work construction in 1967. Shortly after that he had a chance encounter on a dance floor with a gorgeous French-Canadian woman. Three months later Dan and Louise headed to Mexico in a VW van with flowers he had painted on it. They ended up travelling the world for five years!

On one of their last stops in Africa, Dan put a ring on Louise’s finger at the breathtaking Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. Once they were engaged, they moved to Japan to start a business with his brother Tim. Dan and Louise eventually married in a small ceremony on December 1,1973 in Osaka. When Louise was seven months pregnant with Dan Jr., they returned to Canada and settled down in Rossland, BC to raise their family.

Dan helped run the family concrete business in Trail until his parents sold it and retired in Nelson. A couple of years later, Dan and his family also moved to Nelson for a fresh start and the promise of a perfectly quaint and bohemian paradise. Dan and Louise lived in Nelson from 1989 until 2015. After they retired from operating the Blaylock’s Mansion for 15 years, they moved to Kelowna so they could be closer to Dan Jr’s family in Vancouver and Genevieve’s family in Toronto. Known to his grandchildren as Pepe, it brought him tremendous joy to watch them grow up. When Pepe & Meme weren’t following the kids around to baseball diamonds, hockey rinks, and ski hills, they loved spending their winters in Mexico.

Dan will be remembered as a kind and gentle soul who deeply loved his family and friends. He expressed his artistic talents through drawing, piano, and guitar and always threw the best family sing alongs at Christmas. Dan’s infectious smile and hilarious sense of humor drew people in and his ability to listen and understand made them stay. We will never forget his endless positive trademark expressions such as how he signed off every email “keep smiling”. His greatest legacy will no doubt be how he made people feel.

Dan is survived by his wife Louise (nee Desrosiers), his children, their spouses, and grandchildren: Dan Jr (wife Nicole), Nicholas (11) and Benjamin (9); Genevieve (husband Tommy), Monroe (6) and Oliver (4), as well as his sister Kathleen (husband Phil), her five children and 6 grandchildren, and his brother Tim (wife Hiromi) and his eight children and one grandchild.

Dan’s larger than life spirit will live on in our hearts forever. There will be a celebration of life in Nelson, BC in the summer of 2021.

“Heroes get remembered, but legends never die” Babe Ruth

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