9th July 1944 – 19th April 2023
1 PPCLI
Ralph Mathew Funk, 78, of Edmonton, Alberta, passed away on April 19, 2023, with family beside him.
He was born to parents John and Rosemary Funk, on July 9, 1944, in Fort McMurray. He was married to Cheryl Schantz in 1967, who predeceased him in 2014. He was also predeceased by parents John and Rosemary Funk, his brothers William, Roy, Edward, Charles Henry and Joe Funk, and his sisters Mary and Edna.
Ralph is survived by daughter Shelley Potma (Arnold), and son Sean, sisters Ethel Gould, Fay Pederson (Lloyd) and Betty Funk, and brother Brian Turner, as well as seven grandsons and a host of nephews and nieces.
Ralph was known for his love of war history, as evidenced in his choice of encyclopedia books which specialized in that subject. He was especially proud of having served in the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry regiment in Europe in the 1960s. He joined the Canadian Army, like his two older brothers who served in the Canadian Air Force and Canadian Navy respectively.
Ralph is known for his great sense of humour. During family visits, Ralph always had a story or two to tell which ended with him laughing hard every time. So did everyone else. To go with that sense of humour, he had a lot of patience. He allowed his teenaged daughter to practice her hairdressing skills on his hair more than once. (She never became a hairdresser, by the way.) He passed on his love of vehicle model making to his son. He was not a perfect father, but he loved his family very much.
Ralph’s ashes will be scattered privately at the Colchester Cemetery in Sherwood Park along with the ashes of his wife on July 18, 2023.
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