Mr. Richard Arthur Rappel

Richard was born on June 10, 1944, in Drumheller, Alberta, the youngest of Arthur and Margaret Rappel’s four children: the favourite child, according to his sister Myrna, due to his sweetness, humour and good nature. The Rappels lived in Rosedale, a small mining village just east of Drumheller. They were a musical family, and Richard learned to play the trumpet. He performed in his school’s and the Young Soldiers’ bands, plus he’d also step in if his father’s dance ensemble were short a player - a potential disaster in those times, when community dances were enthusiastically anticipated social events. Later, in the early 1960s, he joined a folk singing group, the Valhalla Trio, with Tommy Johnson and Walter Puzianoski, and they achieved some southern Alberta airplay and even a television appearance. In 1956, he won a Good Deeds Radio Club award for saving the life of a friend. Billy Gowden had come into contact with a live electric wire, and, after all but one of the other kids they’d been playing with had run away, Richard used his toy wooden gun to break the connection and save Billy from electrocution. The award was presented in Calgary, and as his future wife Eddie (Walter Puzianoski’s younger sister) was often in the audience for the weekly show’s free entertainment, it’s possible she first saw him there on stage accepting his hero’s honours. On leaving home, Richard was lured to the big city of Calgary where he formally met and then married the love of his life, Eddie (Edwardine), in 1965. Together, they had two sons: John, 1966, and Christopher, 1967. Richard – or “Rick”, as he was known to his workmates – then spent several years as a heavy labourer at Cominco’s former Calgary plant until he joined the Calgary Police Service in 1973. He served the next quarter century as a police officer and rose to the rank of detective, not seeking further promotion into a position where there would be more administrative than active work. After formally retiring from the CPS in 1998, Richard worked for the police part-time for several more years, handling security clearances for the city - doomed to the paperwork he had formerly tried to avoid. He and Eddie also took the Heart and Stroke Foundation’s Big Bike charity event across Canada every summer for the next two decades. Richard loved sports. As a boy, he’d played baseball, later coaching both his sons in Little League and umpiring in the city league. He played for the Calgary Police basketball team that went to the San Diego World Police Olympics in 1982, although they were thoroughly trounced by the teams from much larger cities. After basketball, he played many years in the Calgary Police old-timers hockey league, finally quitting when he noticed most other players could now skate faster backward than he could forward. He liked to bowl, and as an avid league bowler in the 1970s won a trophy for a near-perfect 5-pin game, scoring 448 of the possible 450. He loved to golf and discovered pickleball later in life, even painting his own pickleball court onto the road in front of his house to ensure he always had a place to play and dominate the lesser pickleball titans of the neighbourhood. In 1980, Richard helped his aging parents move from Rosedale to the house next door to his in Calgary to make certain they were well taken care of, and further, in 1990, he helped his wife’s mother Irene move from south Calgary to just up the block so that he could similarly help take care of her. Irene always called him “my Richard!” and thought he was the most wonderful son-in-law imaginable in his selfless concern, demonstrated not just for her, but for everyone. After the passing of both his parents – Arthur in 1988 and Margaret in 1998 – and with his mother-in-law moving to a retirement home, Richard and Eddie relocated to High River, going back to an environment akin to that of his small-town youth. He was his area’s HOA president for years, served a brief spell as community garden vice-president, and maintained the Happy Trails’ flower beds along the municipal river path behind their house. He loved traveling all over Europe and North America. He especially liked visiting his sister Myrna, who had emigrated to Scotland, trips to Hawaii with his grandsons, and lounging about in Indio, California, where he spent most of his retired winters – although the latter preference was partly due to yielding to his wife’s loathing of cold weather. He kept a travel blog in his persona of Ramblin’ Rick (not to be confused with Ranger Rick, his earlier, hiking-specific alter-ego) and wrote some travel articles for the High River Times detailing his experiences in Italy. Travel also dovetailed somewhat with his passion for bird watching. At home in High River, and in Indio, he kept many bird feeders topped up with seed to attract his little avian friends, and visited bird sanctuaries and other habitats wherever he went, filling his birding journal with hundreds of North American species as well as making a respectable start on Britain’s birds. While Richard was instrumental in raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for Heart and Stroke Foundation, he was not immune to the disease. He suffered a stroke in 2020 that ended his active lifestyle, and a further diagnosis of mesothelioma worsened Richard’s health. There was to be no recovery. On Christmas Eve 2023, he passed away peacefully at home, his loving wife at his side. Besides Eddie and his two sons, John and Christopher, left to mourn were his daughter-in-law Virginia and three grandsons: Anthony, Ricardo and Paul. Richard was also survived by his older brother Larry, sisters Valerie and Myrna, and many nieces and nephews. Through Eddie, Richard gained another family: sisters-in-law Julie (Joe), Patsy (Stan d. 2000), Gloria (Jim) and Annie (Phil d. 2016). He was predeceased by his father Arthur, mother Margaret, brother-in-law Wally and Wally’s wife, Penny. His funeral date is 11:00 AM, January 6th, 2024, at St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church in High River. For those unable to attend, the service will be live-streamed at https://www.lylereeves.com. In place of flowers, please donate to the Heart and Stroke Foundation. Caring for the family is Lyle Reeves Funerals of High River (Craig Snodgrass) 403.652.4242.

Tributes

Mr. Richard Arthur Rappel

June 10, 1944 - December 24, 2023