Obituary of Don Hurley

December 4, 1931 - O’Callaghan’s Mills, Clare, Ireland

October 21, 2024 - Calgary, Alberta

 

Don Hurley of Calgary, AB, formerly of Saskatoon, SK, passed away on Monday, October 21, 2024, at the age of 92 years. He left us just over eight years since the passing of his beloved wife, Grainne, and is now reunited with her in their final rest together.

 

Don is survived by his three sons, their wives and nine grandchildren, each and all of which he was very proud of: Sean and Barbara Hurley, children Liam and Aine, of Spokane, Washington; Brian and Elizabeth Hurley, children John, Catriona, Luke and Mary, of Edmonton, AB; and Eamon and Sydelle Hurley, children Senan, Aisling and Conor, of Calgary, AB.

 

Don is also survived by four sisters and their spouses: Maureen and Noel McAuliffe (Tallaght, Dublin, Ireland), Breda and Flor O’Driscoll (Brae, Wicklow, Ireland), Jo and James Hickey (Gort, Galway, Ireland) and Ann and Michael Casey (Ennis, Clare, Ireland). Don is also survived by Anne Hurley (Ennis, Ireland) widow of his predeceased younger brother Sean. Don was also predeceased by his parents, Ann Elizabeth (Elsie, nee Kelly) and Sean (Jack) Hurley, his older brother Michael, who died in infancy, and his younger sister Kitty and her husband Michael Hillery (Limerick, Ireland).

 

Don was born in the village of O’Callaghan’s Mills, in County Clare, Ireland, on December 4, 1931. His father, Jack, ran the local store and was a leader in the local GAA (Gaelic Athletic Association) including being an ever-present ‘vocal’ supporter at hurling matches. Don’s mother, Elsie, was a teacher in the local school. Don was quietly proud of the roles played by both his father and mother, and their families, in the Irish independence movement. Don never forgot and always spoke fondly of Baba, Bridget O’Brian (wife of Jack Fleming) who for years helped to raise the Hurley children while their mother taught school.

 

Don would often recount the downside of being taught by his mother in a two-room school as she was always mindful to not play favorites when his classroom or playground behavior warranted the corrective measures of those days. After his initial years of schooling in the Mills, Don was enrolled in St Flannan’s Boys College in Ennis. Throughout the years, Don entertained all with his stories of Flannan’s including the days of food rationing during World War II when, as class leader, he was among the first to file to his seat for meals and would take the opportunity to drag his finger along the underside of the dining table to capture the butter saved there by other boys from the preceding meal. Don’s youth was filled with many activities, but the Irish sport of hurling was his greatest passion and supplied many of his most cherished memories. He was proud to have been the captain of the senior hurling team at Flannan’s and to have played at school with his younger brother Sean. Up to his final days, Don could recount a play-by-play of various games, as well as the names and characteristics of opposing players he matched up against. He said that some of his clearest remaining memories were of certain games when he saw his younger brother open on the pitch but decided to press on himself or to shoot the sliotar (hurling ball), regretted actions that never left him. Don was very proud, and spoke often, of the successes achieved by his younger brother and it was difficult for him when Sean passed as he said, “with much life to live”.

 

From 1949 to 1958 Don was member of various County Clare teams that played in Munster Minor, Junior and Senior Championships, Senior Challenges games against other Counties, and National League games. He loved to recall when his Clare team played in London in 1954 against a team of Irish Londoners and was able to visit his sister Maureen who was there doing nursing training. Don remained a Clare hurling fan for life and looked forward to every call with the folks back home, especially with his youngest sister Ann, to hear the results of the most recent match. He regularly wore Clare golf shirts and sweaters right up to his passing.

 

In addition to his passion for hurling, Don would laughingly recall that he was a champion dancer in his youth having once won the waltz competition at the Astor Ballroom in Scarriff. Don enjoyed weekend dances and always made sure to save a dance for each of his sisters. It always got a laugh when he would say that one of his regrets was not having learned how to tap dance in his youth.

 

Don worked many odd jobs in his early years including cutting peat in the bogs – one of his favorite photos was of him as a toddler stacking peat with his father in the background.

 

He also worked one summer in London at Wall’s ice cream factory. People not familiar with London of those days were always surprised by Don’s recollection of the difficulties faced by young Irishmen there, including finding lodgings that didn’t immediately reject potential tenants with Irish surnames. Odd jobs also included ‘acting’ as an extra in a few movies being shot in the Dublin area. In addition to legitimate employment, Don’s youth in Dublin included numerous schemes, many involving dog or horse races, with a broad cast of characters, each hoped to put a bit of spending money in their often-empty pockets. Don’s younger days also included a stint in the Irish Reserves that was perhaps more of an opportunity to play on their hurling team than to sharpen any military skills or embark on a career.

 

Don ultimately enrolled in Teachers College in Dublin as the start to a decades long teaching career. After graduation, he returned to O’Callaghan’s Mills and taught with his mother in the school he had attended as a young child. Don frequently recalled that after moving back to Dublin to teach there, he created great memories with a summer’s long Teachers’ excursion to New York with his sister Kitty where they met with their sister Maureen who was then nursing there.

 

In 1965 while teaching in Dublin, Don met Grainne Hession at a dance and their romance resulted in getting married a year later, on August 11, 1966. Before meeting Don, Grainne had spent many glamorous years as an employee with Aer Lingus Airlines, meeting Heads of State and numerous entertainment celebrities. Don enjoyed telling people that a few days before their wedding he had received a call to work as a model on their wedding date, but he willingly gave up the beginnings of certain success to marry Grainne.

 

Soon after getting married, inspired by teacher recruitment posters with bold images of Canada and its First Nations people, they decided to move to Canada for a teaching adventure in Saskatchewan. Don was a first-time Principal for Paynton High School and Grainne taught kindergarten for children from the Little Pine and Poundmaker Reservations. While in Paynton, their first son, Sean, arrived. Both Don and Grainne liked to share stories of how many of the female elders giggled at seeing baby Sean as they had never before seen an infant born without a full head of hair.

 

After two school years in Paynton, they moved to Yorkton for Don to take a job at the Yorkton Regional High School where their second son, Brian, was born. After a year in Yorkton and Grainne missing Ireland, they returned to Dublin where Eamon was born. Despite being back to their beloved Ireland, Don and Grainne felt that Canada held greater opportunities for their sons, and they also missed their Yorkton friends that they had quickly become close to. They returned to Canada where they lived for the rest of their lives. Don made great friends at the Regional and he and Grannie became close life-long friends with Dr. Rossa Stuart, who delivered Brian, his wife Mauve, and their daughters Michelle and Patricia (Patsy). After some great years in Yorkton, believing it was important to live in a university city, they moved to Saskatoon in 1974 where they lived until Grainne’s passing in 2016.

 

Don spent his entire Saskatoon teaching career at E.D. Feehan High School in the English department. When asked why he never taught at the other Saskatoon Catholic High School, Holy Cross, he would answer that he had been in school with his mother twice and he didn’t want his sons to have the same ‘experience’. He would always add that Feehan was special, both for its staff and particularly for its kids. Don enjoyed life-long friendships with his Feehan teaching peers and also with many of his students. Don was proud of his years coaching the Feehan senior boys’ soccer team, regardless of their record, and especially of the years when he had Eileen Laverty as one of his regular players, at the time the only girl participating in high school boys’ soccer in Saskatoon. As girls’ soccer became more popular, Don moved to coach their senior team. Players spoke of the rush to be first to get to his car for rides to games to experience his entertaining stories and jokes along the way. Don loved poetry and Shakespeare and maintained that both must be taught in high school to ensure that all young people had some seed that might, at any time, take hold and grow. Don was particularly fond of poet Robert Frost and especially his work “The Road Not Taken”. He enjoyed adding a quote from Shakespeare to conversation and, though never declaring a favorite play, he particularly enjoyed Macbeth when put on by students or the Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan Troupe.

 

Don retired from teaching in 1991 and pursued a years long desire to be a real estate agent. His Royal Lepage co-workers quickly became a new group of close friends and supporters. His time in real estate afforded him the opportunity to do what he may have enjoyed most: talking to friends and meeting new people. Don especially enjoyed assisting former students with first time home purchases or finding the right home for a challenged buyer.

 

Don and Grainne were long-time parishioners of Holy Spirit Church and active members of the Eastview Community Association. Don was a Cub Scout leader and community soccer coach for his boys. He was a long-time volunteer Meals-on-Wheels driver and also was a regular Red Cross blood donor.

 

Don’s and Grainne’s lives were truly blessed with the great friends they made raising their family on the 1600 block of East Heights. Everyone shared in the joys and challenges of seeing their kids through school, marriage and their own children. Neighbours shared and supported each other during life events, and all have remained there for each other as members of their group have passed on. The neighbours at the ‘end of the block’: the McGartlands, the Yuziks, the Alexanders, and the Huyghebaerts, all truly enriched his and Grainne’s lives.

 

In 1994, Grainne was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease and Don acted as her primary caregiver until her passing twenty full years later. Don was an active member of the Saskatoon Parkinson’s Society and a leading organizer for many years of the Saskatoon Parkinson’s Walk. He and Grainne made many great friends with those who shared their circumstance of having a spouse with this degenerative condition. Due to Grainne’s decreased abilities, it was decided that they had to move to Trinity Manor at Stonebridge where they met many interesting people and established an additional group of dear friends. After Grainne’s passing, it was with true reservation that Don decided to leave his adopted home of Saskatoon and move to Calgary to be closer to his sons and their families.

 

Don was an avid golfer, and he enjoyed many years playing golf at Holiday Park and Wildwood Golf Courses in Saskatoon. Even to his final home, he kept on display his trophy for being the Wildwood Senior Club Champion in 1988. For years Don was an annual participant in the Senior Lobstick Tournament at Waskesiu Golf Course in Prince Albert National Park. At the Lobstick he enjoyed many good times and much laughter most Michael O’Keefe, his great friend and fellow Irish immigrant teacher. Michael and Joyce O’Keefe were the closest thing to Irish family in Canada for Don and Grainne. They first met in Yorkton with Don and Michael teaching at the Regional and both couples ended up raising their sets of three sons in Saskatoon. For years, Christmas and Easter dinners rotated back and forth between the Hurley and O’Keefe households.

 

Don enjoyed trips with Grainne to visit their sons and grandchildren. Trips included visits to homes in Spokane, Edmonton and Calgary and shared vacations to Florida, Scottsdale and San Diego. He and Grainne also went on adventures to Hawaii and Cuba.

 

After Grainne’s passing, Don went on vacations to Ireland and enjoyed a trip to the UK to see Manchester United play and win, his soccer team since his working days in London as a young man. In August of 2019, Don returned to O’Callahan’s Mills and was able to show his Edmonton grandchildren his childhood home. An animal lover, Don had special memories of his and Grainne’s time spent with Grity, Sean and Barb’s retired K-9 German Shepherd. He also contributed to the bad table manners of Dash, Brian and Liz’s, ever-loving Golden Retriever, by feeding him from the dinner table continuously. Both dogs loved it when Grandpa came to town. Trips to visit the Edmonton Hurleys made Don a loyal Oilers fan and following the Toronto Blue Jays became a pastime in his retirement years.

 

Don enjoyed reading and challenged himself to read works from as many countries as possible as he maintained that such breadth of exposure was important to understanding the human condition. He said that though it can definitely look like things are getting worse at times, as someone who taught from the 1950s to the 1990s and continued to follow news and current events into his final years, such belief is not true as the World continues to improve. Don felt it was necessary to remain mindful of the many acts of progress and kindness, small and large, that have occurred since his birth in the '30s.

 

On his last day, Don said that he had been truly blessed in life to have had a patient and loving wife, successful sons with wonderful wives and many healthy and happy grandchildren.

 

The family would like to sincerely thank the dedicated staff of Verve Aspen Woods Retirement Residence who assisted in Don’s return from hospital for his final days of care. It meant so much to him to be in familiar surroundings and to again see smiles that were part of his every day.

 

The family would also like to express their gratitude to Rev. Edmund Vargas, the parish priest of St. Michael Catholic Community. Rev. Edmund provided Don and family much comfort with the administration of the final sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick.

 

The family would like to thank all persons for their messages of condolences and support already received since Don’s passing. A celebration of Don's life will take place in Saskatoon, next Spring. The celebration date will be announced once confirmed by the family.

 

In living memory of Don Hurley, a tree will be planted in the Ann & Sandy Cross Conservation Area by McInnis & Holloway Funeral Homes, Park Memorial, 5008 Elbow Drive SW, Calgary, AB T2S 2L5, Telephone: 403-243-8200.