Obituary of Gerry Hagglund

On Monday, July 22, 2024, Gerald “Gerry” Vernon Hagglund, passed away as a result of a severe lung infection, several days following his 63 birthday.

Gerry Hagglund was born in Winnipeg and was always an inquisitive and intelligent artistic individual. He moved to Regina in 1965. As he grew a little bit older, Gerry and Rick were often thought of as looking like twins despite being 28 months apart in age. Gerry was tall for his age and outgrew Rick when he was 13. Gerry played tenor saxophone, later guitar, and the trumpet. Gerry typically was adventurous and sometimes this led to excellent conquests while other times less than excellent.

Some friends referred to Rick as “Richie Cunningham” and Gerry was “beyond the Fonz”. Gerry and Rick delivered 300+ flyers including the last huge Eaton’s catalogues. Gerry got a job at McDonalds, age 14, as he was quite tall for his age. After a year he went to A&W where the five-patty hamburger was named the “Animal Burger” after his nickname in PPCLI Regina Rifles.

One time at Dundurn, SK, Gerry carried his semi-automatic rifle and tripod all by himself and at each stage approaching his shooting target selected only single shot instead of semi auto. When he was at the last stage - very close to his target, he selected full auto and destroyed both the target and the target holder. His CO told him that as impressive as that was, he would prefer that Gerry not do it again. Later he was one of six selected to be the Queens Honour Guard and flown from Dundurn, SK to Regina.

Like his dad Carl, Gerry could fix anything electronic and mechanical, working at both Elmectronics for several years and Farmtronics from approximately 2000 to 2016. When he lived in a lower income part of town Gerry was seen repairing older people’s houses, painting fences, fixing roofs and doing other outside activities.

Earlier, Gerry often worked for Loewens Moving and enjoyed Ed and his very supportive family. Later, he worked at Weston’s Bakery for another amazing gentleman from our church, Norm Lockie and as a guard at the Provincial Correctional Centre for a period of time.

Travelling a lot and hitchhiking were always expected of Gerry. He lived in Laval, Montréal and southern Quebec for over seven years. Motorcycle enthusiasts would claim that Gerry’s skill in rewiring motorcycles from scratch without wire harnesses was remarkable.

While we didn’t always accompany Gerry’s unexpected, adventurous approach to life we always looked for and attributed the best motives. Most importantly, we stayed out of his way when he was on a roll.

We thank Jesus for allowing three evenings of reconciliation between Gerry and Rick’s family, Gerry blinking his responses to communicate with Rick, Marlene and their children.

Thank you, Gerry for a very nontraditional life and my last thought is “No more surprises.”

Remaining to mourn are his dad Carl; brother Rick (Marlene) and their children Josiah (Mary) and their child Gigi, August (Sienna) and Rebekah (Zach) Hagglund; Uncle Jacob Vernon Martens; cousins Karen Blakey, Sunny (Matt) and their daughter Morgan Laursen, Andrew (Karen) Martens and their son Jordan (Jessica) and their child Jayden Brick, Gilbert (Lyn) Sommerfeld and their son Josiah, Karen (David) Sommerfeld-Forge, Judy Lans(Rodney), Heidi (Maverick) and Sterling, Debby (Michael) Stephen and Cher and their five kids: Lincoln , Jackson, Elliana, Colton, and Weston, Braden and Nina and their four kids: Ezra, Francesca, Cosette , Jasmine ,Levi and Stephanie, Jesse, Elise and Daniel Markin and their twins Gwenyth and London, Emily and Chance Jackson and their two kids: Jessie and Von, Luke and Chelsea and their one baby, Esther.

A Memorial Service for Gerry will be held at 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, August 6, 2024 at Regina Apostolic Church, 808 Assiniboine Ave. E., Regina, SK with Pastor James Bobst officiating.