PARSONS, Angus Silas; Angus (Gus) Parsons passed away peacefully on Monday, January 8th, 2024 with his loving wife Arene by his side. Angus recently celebrated his 98th birthday largely due to the love and care bestowed upon him by Arene during their wonderful 23 year marriage. Angus was predeceased by his wife of 48 years, Dorothy Mae Parsons (Parfit) in 1998. Loved by many friends and adoring family. Angus was the son of Robert and Jesse (MacIver). He was predeceased by his sisters Leah Faulkner (Sandy), Mae Hughes (Samuel), Louise Bartlett (William) and brothers, Robert (Lois) and Calvin (Margaret).
Loving father of his four children; Darlene Marshall (Larry), Darrell (Polin), Drew (Cheryl), Dwayne (Sandra) and two step-children: Steve Kielt (Susan) and Ryan Kielt (Jen). Cherished grandfather of Graham Marshall (Kim), Adrienne Buxton (Kenny), Matt Parsons (Brienne), Lindsey Riffel (Steve), Lipine Nuis (John), Jessie-Lee Parker (Brian), Ashton Parsons, Naomi Parsons, Lyara and Talia Kielt, Joey and Oakley Kielt, Kain Petlak and Logan Petlak (Kristin). Proud great-grandfather to Sydney, Harper, Kennedy, Karleigh, Onyx, Freddie, Lilly-Ann, Kohen and Kesler.
Angus survived a hard childhood in Nova Scotia to embrace life with its wonderful potential worth fighting and working hard for. At 14, with the untimely death of his mother and twin brothers, he quit grade 7 and became a coal miner to help support his family. With the start of World War II, even though he was underaged, with the help of his father and a slip of the pen, Angus enlisted in the Royal Canadian Navy. Serving on a Tribal Class Destroyer he escorted ships into England supplying the war effort. Eighteen Canadian escort ships were sunk but Angus made it home safely. With his free veteran’s bus ticket, he made his way to Ontario securing a surveying job with the Ministry of Transport. He surveyed many new post war highways connecting to northern Ontario. After marrying Dorothy, they wanted to settle and raise a family and so Angus followed his fellow surveyors to Sarnia. He first landed a job as an engineer then later in the Assessment Department. To make ends meet, Angus worked many jobs including washing Bell trucks and managing his own BA Gas station. He took night classes learning Business and Purchasing, later becoming the Department Head of Purchasing for the City of Sarnia. He was a proud member of both the Purchasing Management and Ontario Municipal Buyers Associations and a past president of both. In 1984, after 30 years of Service, Angus retired to his decades long labour of love, his family cottage on Cameron Lake. Gus joked that he only used six tools to build the cottage and a square was not one of them. The cottage was an intregal part of family life, introducing four generations to Gus’ great outdoors, shaping lives and interests for all that stayed and enjoyed the Lake.
The spirit of Angus is in many of us and we go forward with the knowledge that he had a life well lived.
The family would like to express their sincere appreciation to all the medical staff at Bluewater Health for their kind and compassionate care of Angus. A celebration of Gus’ 98 years will be held at the Smith Family Centre (in front of Smith Funeral Home), 1576 London Line, Sarnia, on Saturday, June 15th from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.