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Elizabeth Olsen <[email protected]> wrote:
SOMEONE JUST SENT ME THIS.
I am not really sure which one of you was hired by Lorne Reed, Dale Payne hired the other. Without the kindness of these two dedicated men your mission funds would have been much harder to come by. They were wonderful saviors to many people. They were both a blessing in our lives. I Knew Lorne Reed so well, and came across this. Though you don't remember him, it would be well to know the character of a man who made such a difference in our lives in that and many other kind ways when we lived in Calgary.
Lorne Herbert Reed Sept 8, 1923 - Sept 7, 2013
Lorne, beloved husband of Vernetta Pilling, passed away unexpectedly at the Foothills Hospital, just one day shy of his 88th [or 90th if you go by the dates above-rdd] birthday. He touched countless lives with his generous spirit and unending faith in the potential of all he associated with. Lorne was born in Canora, Saskatchewan and grew up in the Depression. Although he had barriers to break, his determination and acute intellect opened up opportunities for success throughout his life. He earned his degree at the University of Saskatchewan in Engineering Physics and pioneered geophysical prospecting in the formative years of the Alberta oil industry. Earl in his career he found himself on a seismic crew with Canadian Gulf Oil in Cardston, Alberta. Here, he met the love of his lie and eternal companion. Vernetta, with whom he spent the next 64 years. In 1955 he created his own oil and gas company. Lorne H. Reed & Associates. His unquestioning faith in God carried them through the most difficult trial of their lives, a tragic car accident June 1958 which claimed the lives of their three young children, Loretta, Kathryn and Brian. Over the next seven years they were blessed with five more children.
Mom continues, "I watched the people come into the chapel as I waited for the service to begin. Jerry Palmer was a few rows in front of us. Wyona asked me how old he was. I told her I would go find out – I thought not as young as 73 and not as old as 83, but I would confirm, I told her. When I asked him his age he dodged the question but answered my question about how his life intersected with Lorne’s.
"I was a return missionary. Coming back from the mission field I didn’t even know that my folks had moved to a neighbouring southern Alberta town from the one where I grew up. When I finally got back to my folk’s house, the next day my brother-in-law brought me to Calgary to find a job, taking me to Lorne’s business. Lorne gave me a math test,” Jerry said, miming with his hand doing a simple addition problem. ”When he saw I had about a Grade XII level of skill he hired me. That money gave me the funds with which to go to university. That job gave me the vision that I could become a professional as well. That is how I know him. He opened the space for me to have a better life. And Arta, I am 80,” he concluded.
Later in the service the biographer was to say that Lorne hired 100’s of young men, giving them ways to have funds to follow their dreams.