TERRY BECKINGHAM

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TERRY BECKINGHAM

Terry died the evening of October 21, 2025, in his room at Misericordia Place where he'd been cared for the past sixteen months.

Terrance George Beckingham was born August 30, 1945, in North Bay, Ontario to George and Joy (Nichols) Beckingham. A year later the family moved to Hamilton Ontario where Terry started school, and then to Kilbride Avenue in West Kildonan where he spent his childhood and youth, attending Belmont and Edmund Partridge schools and Garden City Collegiate. Always a hard worker, Terry had paper routes when he was young and worked as a delivery boy for a drug store and grocery store, carrying boxes on his bicycle summer and winter. He played little league baseball and later excelled at playing the accordion.

After grade eleven, Terry attended the Manitoba Institute of Technology, then qualified for the Certificate of Proficiency in Radio from the federal Department of Transport. He was employed for thirty-three years by the Department of Transport, later called Transport Canada, first as a Radio Operator/Flight Service Specialist and then as Flight Service Station Manager at The Pas Airport. His career began with a year in Resolute, NU where he watched the sun set in October and rise again in February, and where he walked over the bare tundra in the brief summer observing musk ox and tiny wildflowers. There were no trips home in the 1960s, or even telephones. The only communication with the outside world was via ham radio. A highlight of his year was a helicopter ride to Grise Fjord and dinner on the deck of the John A. McDonald icebreaker. Terry spent a further six months in Resolute in 1971 to 72, agreeing to go only with the guarantee that he'd be home for the birth of his daughter. Other than the stints in Resolute, Terry's F.S.S. career was spent entirely at The Pas Airport on the shores of beautiful Clearwater Lake.

By 1995 improvements in communications technology had rendered small regional flight service stations obsolete. When The Pas Flight Services was closed, Terry chose to retire rather than leave the home he loved, and at aged fifty he began a second career as a piano technician. He tuned and repaired pianos in The Pas and area, and for ten years spent three or four weeks a year tuning pianos at the Brandon University School of Music. He qualified as a Registered Piano Technician (RPT), one of only a few in Manitoba, and for some years was active in the RPT Guild.

While the family was still young, Terry and Valerie bought the shell of a cabin on Rocky Lake East Shore. Over the years, beginning before there was electricity so he could use only hand tools, Terry built a comfortable home, doing everything from pouring foundations to wiring and plumbing by himself. He hoped to spend the rest of his life in this beautiful place, surrounded by lake and trees and many good neighbours. But in April, 2022 Terry suffered a severe stroke. After a year it became apparent that he needed more care than was available. In April, 2023 he moved to Winnipeg. Then in June, 2024 he made his final move to Misericordia Place.

Terry will be very much missed by his wife of fifty-nine years, Valerie, by his children Jennifer and Violet and by his dearly-loved grandchildren Anne Dunham, Adam Beckingham, Jack Dunham and Jane Dunham. He is also survived by his sister Susan Stewart and by brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law Brian Giesbrecht, Brenda Buckley, Lorne Giesbrecht and Wendy Penno and nieces and nephews. Terry was predeceased by his parents George and Joy Beckingham, his parents-in-law Barney and Alvina Giesbrecht and brother-in-law Robert Stewart as well as a niece and nephew.

The family thanks Health Care Aides Ashley in The Pas and Lisa in Winnipeg whose help enabled Terry to stay in his own homes for two years. Special thanks to the Aides, nurses and other staff at Misericordia Place who took such good care of Terry under, sometimes, difficult conditions.

Terry did not want a service of any kind, so there won't be one. Flowers are gratefully declined, but if they wish, those who remember Terry can make a contribution in his memory to the Misericordia Place Foundation or to a charity of their choice.

As published in Winnipeg Free Press on Oct 25, 2025