It is with heavy hearts that we announce the unexpected passing of Gregory “Greg” Vincent Nikkel on Saturday February 22, 2025 at the age of 63. He passed at the Weyburn General Hospital before his family was able to say their goodbyes, but they were able to see him before he was sent to the Fletcher Funeral Chapel where he has been taken excellent care of. Greg was cremated on Friday February 28 in Regina Saskatchewan, and his ashes will be in the care of the funeral home until the date for his burial and the scattering of his ashes has been determined.

Greg was born in Bistroff, France on September 18, 1961 where his parents Alfred and Mildred Nikkel were stationed with the Canadian Air Force. Greg often liked to joke that this made him French, and his children would cringe at his constant brutalization of the French language, with phrases such as “Mercy buckets” being regular in his vocabulary. His first two years of life were spent in France, where he contracted a form of enteritis, an illness that was fatal for many infants at the time. Luckily, Greg was able to get treatment and he recovered. Knowing that he came so close to death so young makes it even more special that he was able to have another 61 years on this earth. Greg had a baby sister who was not as lucky, and she passed within her first year of life. In 1962, the Nikkel family welcomed Greg’s brother Roderick Nikkel, who due to the illness circulating had to be delivered in Germany just across the border. In 1963, the Nikkel family returned to Canada and lived in CFB Bagotville, QB for several years. Over the course of his childhood, adolescence, and teenage years, Greg and his family also lived in Edmonton, AB, Moose Jaw, SK, and finally Innisfail, AB where Greg graduated high school in 1979.

After his high school graduation, Greg attended Berean Bible College in Calgary, AB for 3 years, earning his Bachelor’s degree in Theology in 1983. After he graduated from Bible College, Greg spent the spring of 1984 to the spring of 1985 traveling with Venture Teams International; a group that does short-term outreach utilizing individual gifts, including the arts, personal testimony, prayer ministry and practical work projects. Many who knew Greg later in life, particularly his church congregation, knew that he was an excellent audio engineer. Venture Teams International is where Greg first learned this new skill, and his abilities were able to grow over the years as he worked on the sound systems at his church in Weyburn, SK. During his year with Venture Teams International, Greg spent 4 months in Canada, 4 months in the Philippines, and another 4 months in Canada. His time in the Philippines resulted in incredible photographs, beautiful art, and experiences that he would later regale his children with – one of the most memorable being the consumption of the Filipino dish balut. For those who are not familiar, balut is a fertilized developing duck embryo that is boiled and eaten from the shell. Greg’s Filipino guides did not tell their Canadian guests what it was until after they had tried it, much to the horror and delight of his children upon the retelling of the experience, where he described it as “crunchy and salty”. During the final 4 month tour in Canada, Greg and his group traveled across the country playing music for many communities along the way. One of the locations he visited was Sault St. Marie, a city in Ontario that is a short drive from the village of Echo Bay where an unsuspecting Greg would meet his future wife.

Although Tracy Golder had met the group when they came through originally, she didn’t remember meeting Greg until he came back a year later to visit the family that had billeted him. They met January 12, 1986 at church, and had their first date on January 13, 1986 where they went to see the movie Out of Africa. Greg returned to Alberta, but the couple exchanged letters for the next 8 months, and in August of 1986 he returned to Ontario to see his love. After this visit, Greg went back out west to attend the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) from the fall of 1986 until his graduation with a degree in Journalism in the spring of 1988. Shortly after his graduation, Greg Nikkel and Tracy Golder were married on May 28, 1988 on St. Joseph’s Island at a beautiful outdoor ceremony. After their wedding, Greg and Tracy stayed with Tracy’s parents in Echo Bay for a couple of months before Tracy suggested his best opportunities for work would be back out west. They returned to Alberta in 1988, and Greg began his journalism career at a small newspaper in Morinville where he worked for 1 year before being transferred to their sister newspaper in Redwater, Alberta. Greg’s first child, Elizabeth was born in Edmonton in 1989 during his and Tracy’s year in Morinville. They spent over 5 years in Redwater, where the couple was blessed with their son James in 1991, their daughter Deborah in 1992, and their daughter Johanna in 1994. In the winter of 1994, Greg was hired at the Weyburn Review in Weyburn, SK where he was a journalist, editor, and also wrote an editorial for most of his 30-years with this newspaper. Greg put his work above all else, winning countless awards over the years for his incredible writing, photography, and unfailing ability to make the events and human stories in Weyburn come to life.

While this gives a timeline of Greg’s life, it is impossible to encapsulate the stories that comprised his experiences in such a brief space. Greg had an incredible passion for many things, including reading and writing fiction, listening to a wide array of music, taking pictures with his ever-present camera, watching movies with his family, and using his very silly sense of humor to make them laugh. Greg instilled a love for these things in his children, and it was often through books and music that they were able to connect and understand each other. Greg shared his love for books with his children; they were read to regularly from a young age, and it grew into a love and appreciation that has never left them. Greg always encouraged his children to pursue their artistic outlets, including writing, drawing, singing, and sewing. Greg’s love for writing extended beyond his work, and he spent much of his free time crafting fictional stories of his own. Greg’s family has not yet been able to compile a complete list of how many stories he wrote in his lifetime, but it is sure to be extensive. It was always his dream to have his personal writing published, and this is an endeavor his family will try to accomplish on his behalf, and in his memory. Greg’s taste in music was always incredible and spanned such a wide range of genres and artists – excluding, of course country music, which he abhorred with every fiber of his being. Greg was also quite musical himself, with his aforementioned skills with audio technology, as well has his beautiful bass voice. Although he did not play much later in life as other demands overtook his time, his children recall him playing his guitar and singing to them when they were young. Some of his children’s favourite memories of spending time with their dad include accompanying him during thunder storms to take shots of lightning at signal hill, fishing trips where he taught them how to fish and skip rocks, and staying up late on summer nights watching classics from his movie collection. It was through some of his favourites, such as Monty Python and the Marx Brothers, that Greg shared his sense of humor with his children, all of whom loved it except for one daughter, who was eternally groaning at the pain of being exposed to puns and British humor. Life was not perfect for any of the Nikkels, but Greg did his absolute best as a husband and father to provide special moments that they all treasure, and above all, love that they all felt deeply. His life was cut short, and he will be missed every day by those who loved him. Greg would want us to take the moments that bring tears to our eyes, and rather than letting these break our hearts, let them heal us with the knowledge that we are lucky to have these memories, and we were lucky to have him. 

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