July 14, 1938-Feb 15, 2022
Miller McCoy, age 83, passed away peacefully on Feb 15 at the Peter Lougheed Hospital with his loving family at his side. Miller leaves behind Elaine, his wife of 62 years, his son Alan McCoy and daughter Judy (Don) Edwards, all of Didsbury. Miller was very proud of his family, especially his grandchildren Terrill (Mike) Fee, Brad (Victoria) Edwards, Allison (Brenden) Meston, AJ McCoy, Kayla (Rick) Gundlock, and Jason (Shay) Edwards. Miller’s face would light up whenever the great grandchildren visited.
Miller also leaves to mourn his sisters Laura Lawrence, Twila Skow, Mary Lee (John) Kohut, Diane (Phil) Schneidmiller, Kathleen (Louis) Kohut, and Jane (Fred) Mazurin. He was predeceased by his father, Walter McCoy, his mother Marvel Reese and step father Karl, brother Keith McCoy, and sister Betty Lou Witzel.
Miller attended school in Didsbury. His first job was delivering the Calgary Herald and working as a rink rat at the local arena which earned him free ice time to play shinny with his friends. Miller then worked for Len Berscht of JV Berscht clothing store until 1954 when he moved to the local newspaper, the Didsbury Pioneer for the next seven years.
In May of 1961, Miller and Elaine started the Didsbury Booster and worked tirelessly gathering local news for the community until September 1977. They proudly still have a copy of every paper they printed in those many years. During this time they also built M&G Car Wash which they later expanded to include a FasGas and convenience store.
When the Booster sold, they purchased Mountain View Sports and operated that family business until 2005. At the same time, Miller followed his dream to be a farmer and in 1988 started a custom haying and cattle operation on the southwest corner of Didsbury.
Sports was a big part of Miller’s life, playing for over 30 years in Didsbury going through minor hockey, then Sr Ramblers of the Chinook Hockey League. He continued to play hockey twice a week in Calgary in the CARHA league, attending world hockey competitions and winning 4 titles in Vancouver in 2000, Ottawa in 2004, Quebec City in 2008 and Sault Ste Marie in 2012. The summer months were spent on the ball diamond playing fastball with the Didsbury Jets and later the Calgary Cablers. Miller was still actively involved in both the Didsbury Golf Club playing men’s night and the Didsbury Curling Rink playing weekly right up to his passing.
Miller loved his community and was always involved in fundraising for local projects such as the Square Footer Club building the original indoor swimming pool and helping to rebuild the current Memorial Complex after the devasting fire that took down the old arena. He also found time to serve his community through the Didsbury Kinsmen and was still active in the local K-40 group.
A Celebration of Life will be held at centre ice of the Didsbury Memorial Complex on April 8th at 1 pm. In lieu of flowers, a memorial fund has been set up to ensure Miller’s work in the community lives on and that funding is available to hockey, ball and other organizations when families need support with sports fees. Details are available at the Celebration of Life or by email [email protected]
