Chester "Brian" Dawson

Chester Brian Dawson of Minitonas, Manitoba passed away suddenly in the Porcupine Provincial Forest on Friday April 7, 2023 at the age of 80 years. 

Brian was born the youngest of three children to Hilda and Chester Dawson in Swan River on March 10, 1943 and he lived, worked and played in the Swan River Valley his whole life. 

Brian met Ollie when she brought her VW bug into the garage where he worked as a mechanic.  Once her car was fixed they started dating, eventually getting married in 1963.  Soon after, they welcomed their daughter Deb and four years later their son Chris.  Brian spent many happy hours sharing his knowledge and love of nature, animals, camping, hiking, hunting and fishing with his kids. 

Always interested in learning new things Brian pursued a variety of jobs during his life working as a mechanic, for the Department of Forestry, at the Elevators in Minitonas, as a Carpenter, for the RM of Minitonas, working on Ollie’s family farm (evenings and weekends) and spending over 25 years employed with the Swan Valley School Division Maintenance Department before he retired.

His natural curiosity also led him to try numerous activities and clubs – small plane pilot, CB radio operator, cross country skiing, Masons, Shriners, training his hunting dogs, flying RC planes, skeet shooting, down hill skiing, guiding, snowmobiling, dancing, keeping up with the latest computer technology, riding his electric bike, exploring flea markets and geocaching.

Often, he would get so involved in some hobbies that he would end up volunteering for them spending hundreds of hours teaching people to down hill ski and helping with maintenance at Thunder Hill Ski Club, leading geocaching workshops with Ollie or endless hours maintaining skidoo trails and building warm up shacks.

Brian loved to socialize and couldn’t go anywhere without meeting someone new or making a friend, always quick with a joke or a tease and a friendly laugh.  He had great fun dancing and couldn’t get enough of good fiddle music, making many trips around the province and into the states to visit summer music festivals with Ollie.

Fun loving, creative, curious, adventurous, jack of all trades – a man, a husband, a dad, a granddad, an uncle and a friend, his passing has left an ache in our hearts.

He was preceded in death by his dad Chester, his mom Hilda and his older sister Iris. 

He will be greatly missed by his wife Ollie Dawson, his children Deb Dawson-Dunn (Chris Dunn) and Chris Dawson (Cara Dawson) and his grandson Keiran Dawson, his sister Ada McMullan, many nieces, nephews and friends.

A Celebration of Brian’s life will be held on Saturday May 6 at the Minitonas Hall at 2:00 pm.  Please join us for stories, music and some dancing to celebrate his life in the way he would have loved most.

The family requests in lieu of flowers contributions may be donated to: The Swan Valley Outdoors Association Inc. c/o Ward Perchuk, Box 1210, Swan River, Manitoba, R0L 1Z0 or the Swan Valley Community Foundation www.cfsv.ca

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