Dyer, Bruce
Dyer, Thomas Bruce
April 30, 1932 – November 16, 2024With heavy hearts we share the news of our dad, Bruce Dyer’s passing on November 16, 2024, at Carpenter Hospice in Burlington, Ontario. When eagles fly, they soar.
Dad, a retired flight engineer, took his final soaring flight from this earthly world at the age of 92, after a brief and sudden illness that took him and us all by surprise. He is survived by and will be deeply and forever missed by his high school sweetheart and loving wife of 70 years, Viola Dyer, his two daughters Brenda Langille (David) & Sharon Dyer and his two sons, Stephen Dyer and Gordon (Cathy) Dyer. He leaves behind, to cherish his memory, 8 grandchildren, an ever growing number of great grandchildren and many extended family members. Bruce was predeceased by one of his grandchildren, Ashley, and a daughter- in-law, Jane.
Bruce was the eldest of two children born to parents who immigrated to Canada from the UK: Thomas (Tom) Basil Dyer and Elizabeth (Betty) Hetherington Dyer. Born in Montreal, Quebec, he grew up in Les Cèdres and then in Verdun, Quebec. At the age of 18, after completing high school, our dad eagerly enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force, fulfilling his childhood dream to serve in the Air Force branch of the Canadian Military. He initially trained as an aircraft maintenance mechanic and quickly advanced to become a flight engineer, rising through the ranks, retiring as a Warrant Officer towards the end of his 25 years of military service. He travelled all over the world starting out his flying adventures during the last years of the Korean War and providing peace keeping services with his fellow service members during the Vietnam War and beyond up to 1975. He was awarded a Special Service Medal by the Canadian National Defence for service in support of NATO and peacekeeping operations. He was proud to have served as a flight engineer with 426 Transport Training Squadron, 437 Transport Squadron and Operational Training Unit 4 while based at CFB Trenton (Ontario) and then 405 Long Range Patrol and Training Squadron based at CFB Greenwood (Nova Scotia).
Bruce was excited to continue his career as a flight engineer, post-retirement from the Canadian Military, with Quebecair, out of Montreal, Quebec and then with Wardair Canada out of Toronto which prompted a move for Bruce and Viola to Burlington, Ontario. Bruce loved the opportunity to experience more adventures and continuing worldwide travel as a flight crew member on larger commercial wide body aircraft such as McDonnell Douglas DC-10s, Boeing 747s and Airbus A310s.
Bruce was a passionate lifelong student of the world who had a ceaseless thirst for knowledge and was always inquisitive to learn new skills and to develop his natural talents. A man with vast interests, he had many varied happy places including soaking up the technicalities of aircraft operation and maintenance in flight manuals, pouring through Popular Mechanic to learn how to improve his fix-it skills (you’d be hard-pressed to find something he couldn’t fix), learning new methods for enhancing the growth of his annual vegetable and flower garden, perusing cooking magazines to make the next gourmet meal for the family (and there were many), mastering computer skills in his later years and editing and publishing an online newsletter Propwash for the Canadian Military Flight Engineer Association, helping out or decorating for a function at Branch 60 Burlington of the Royal Canadian Legion (where attending Friday fish and chip night was one of his and Viola’s favorite weekly activities) and most of all his continuous desire to develop and improve his incredible, natural born artistic abilities and talent using various mediums but with a special love for watercolor painting. For many years, more than 100 people annually were lucky enough to receive an original Christmas card from Bruce featuring a print of a countryside scene that he had sketched during travels along Ontario country roads in the spring, summer, or fall and then ”winterized” into a magnificent watercolor painting. Many breath-taking paintings were created over the years and are left behind for the family to marvel and cherish his artistic gift.
Family and friends will especially miss another chance to drop by and visit Bruce to hear his many jokes, and stories and share a cold beer. He had a playful sense of humor, a quick wit, and the ability to make everyone around him feel truly at ease. He was a one-of-a-kind man and though 92 years seems long, for those who knew him, he is gone much too soon.
A celebration of life is to be planned for the spring of 2025 to enable family members from far and wide to be able to travel and gather.
The family expresses their deepest gratitude and appreciation to the team at Carpenter Hospice for the compassionate care provided to their father during his last few days of life. In lieu of flowers, contributions to Carpenter Hospice would benefit others to receive the same comfort and dignity in their final days as Bruce received there.
