Ian Wilson

September 10, 1936 - January 1, 2019
With great sadness, our family announces the sudden passing of our dear husband, father, & grandfather Ian Foyle Wilson on January 1, 2019 at Kootenay Boundary Regional Hospital in Trail, BC at the age of 82. Ian was born to Alex and Edwina Wilson on September 10, 1936 at the Trail Hospital.

He spent his first seven years in Warfield in the area known as Beaver Bend where he attended grades one and two at Webster School.

The family relocated to Rossland where Ian attended MacLean Elementary School, followed by Rossland Secondary School. While there, Ian was a member of the Boys' Ski Team coached by family friend, Chess Edwards. In later years, Ian & his friends helped Chess build his family cabin at Christina Lake. After graduation, Ian attended Senior Matric at J.L. Crowe High School in Trail before heading to UBC to enroll in Engineering. While at UBC, Ian was a member of the UBC scuba diving team. He later took courses in Geology and Architecture before finally deciding to pursue a career in teaching at Victoria College in 1959. It was there that he met Laura Volpatti of Trail who later (1962) became his loving wife of 56 years.

Ian started teaching in 1960 at the Trail Junior High School, then later transferred to the Rossland High School where he taught Math, Science, & Biology until hisretirement in 1995. He was an excellent & well-respected member of the teaching staff, & also coached the girls' ski team for several years with many successful results. Ian's two daughters were members of that team.

Ian and Laura's first daughter, Barbra, was born in 1966, and Brenda was born in 1967. They enjoyed their girls very much, teaching them to ski at Red Mt., as well as how to swim and water ski at their boat-access cabin at Christina Lake. Ian had built the small cabin and dock by hand in 1963 due to the lack of electricity across the lake, and in later years, he spent most of his retirement completing their new cottage on East Lake Drive. Ian was a very talented wood worker and handyman, and did most of the finishing of the cottage himself, including the plumbing, the electricity, the insulation, and the drywalling. He even made the maple kitchen cabinets and designed a staircase to access the small loft in the upper part of the building. Ian continued to work on the completion of the cottage until the fall of this year with only one minor job to complete his retirement project of over twenty years. He loved being self-sufficient in that he was skilled enough to do the various jobs without hiring outside help, and he could take his time to perfect each of them to his satisfaction.

Besides working on cabins at Christina Lake, Ian spent time teaching his grandchildren to ski and water ski. He enjoyed swimming, biking, walking on trails in Texas Point, country music, traveling to many National Parks in the western US states, & above all--skiing. He skied with good friends almost every day of the ski season at Red Mountain, with annual trips to Sun Valley, Idaho with the 'Sun Valley Gang'. Surprisingly, he did all that skiing for over twenty years on one hip replacement, and about eleven of those years on two hip replacements! Ian is predeceased by his father and mother and younger brother, John, as well as by his dear son-in-law, Patrick Nutini. He will be sadly missed by his loving wife, Laura, daughter Barbra Nutini and her daughters Renee and Alana, and daughter Brenda Wilson and her children, Nick and Brooke Foli, and Kyle Popoff. Also grieving are his sister-in-law Diane Volpatti of Rossland, and sister-in-law and brother-in-law, Doreen and Louie Pusich of Juneau, Alaska. Ian will also be greatly missed by his many good friends in the Rossland/Trail area, as well as at Christina Lake where he and Laura spent six months annually since the year 2000.

A Celebration of Life for Ian will be held at the Warfield Hall on Saturday, January 12, 2019 at 2 pm. Bill Clark of Alternatives Funeral and Cremation ServicesTM has been entrusted with the arrangements.

As an expression of sympathy, donations in Ian's memory may be made to the KBRH Health Foundation (Emergency Room Campaign) at 1200 Hospital Bench, Trail, BC V1R 4M1 or online at www.kbrhhealthfoundation.ca

You are invited to leave a personal message of condolence at the family's online register at www.myalternatives.ca.
 Alternatives Funeral & Cremation Services