Mart KERNAHAN

KERNAHAN, G. Martin "Mart"
June 13, 1923 - January 2, 2013
Mart passed away peacefully at the Rockyview Hospital from complications arising from a fall, with his loving wife of 63 years, Elaine, and other family members at his side.
Born in St. James, Manitoba, to Margarete and John Everett Kernahan, Mart was the middle of three sons, and soon excelled at both academics and sports. After graduating from high school, he attended University of Manitoba, where he was the only engineering student to be on both the varsity track & field and football teams. He met his wife-to-be, the University of Alberta homecoming campus queen of 1945, Elaine Wagner, on a train ride to Edmonton. Although he didn't know her name then, he found out, and began actively "courting" her. After over three years of Mart visiting her frequently by train, and sending her a gardenia every month, they married in Edmonton in 1949, he having just graduated as Mechanical Engineer (BASc), and she as Public Health Nurse (BSc). Two years later, they had their first of six children, and after several years as a field engineer for Schlumberger, they moved to Calgary with two daughters in tow. Mart then decided to purchase the first privately owned computer in Western Canada to start his own computer data services company, Computrex, in the early 1960's. He opened his headquarters on the top floor of the city's newest 22-storey "skyscraper" Elveden House, and thereafter grew the business into a successful public company with ten locations across Canada that he proudly operated for over 35 years. In the process, he worked with and trained a large number of computer science professionals throughout those years in what he fondly called the "the university of Computrex".
In Calgary, Mart was also able to pursue his dream of skiing in the Rockies, and by the mid 1960's was taking his family of now six children - four daughters and two sons - in the family station wagon with Elaine every winter weekend to Lake Louise. Mart soon became very involved in the initial investment and development of the ski area, and was responsible for the placement of many of the first chairlifts and their run designs and locations. One such run, ""Kernahan's Folly"" - where he was caught in an avalanche while ski touring in the early days - still bears his name. His passion for the sport led him to be a founding member of the Calgary Olympic Development Association (CODA), where he worked tirelessly on two cross-Atlantic bids to try and win the Winter Olympic bid for Banff and Lake Louise in 1968 and 1972. When the Winter Games finally arrived in Calgary in 1988, Mart was awarded a life-time CODA membership in recognition of his on-going efforts in achieving this goal.
In addition to his love of skiing, he was an avid and active sailor, whether it was skippering his 20' Flying Dutchman in the summer months on Pigeon Lake (where the family had a cabin), or later in the British Virgin Islands, captaining a 50' sailing yacht with friends and family. Mart had a love of the sea and the open water, along with his love of skiing and the mountains. He also enjoyed open-air sports cars and bought one of the first Jaguar E-types in Calgary in 1963, which he enthusiastically owned for 25 years!
Mart was also very involved within the Calgary business community at large, whether as an active investor in a fertilizer business, a director in oil & gas exploration companies, or as the principal in proposed semi-conductor manufacturing facility along with the Alberta government, and, during his long and varied professional career, worked with many other prominent and successful Calgary businessmen and professionals, many of whom became his close friends over the years.
Mart was always active in civic issues, too, whether it was successfully preserving the Bow River corridor from a plan in the 1960's to move the CP tracks from the existing downtown location to the riverbank, or his own neighbourhood's Sandy Beach park from a plan to build a highway overpass there. He also worked side-by-side with his neighbours as the unofficial ""Mayor of Britannia"" (where he served as President of the Community Association) on many property assessment and development issues.
Mart was a proud and long-standing member of the Calgary Downtown Rotary Club, and over the years worked selflessly on many causes that he felt would provide a net benefit to other Calgarians. He was also a founding member of the Calgary Petroleum Club, where he took his wife for dinner & dancing on many Saturday nights, and was also a proud member of APEGA (the Association of Professional Engineers and Geologists of Alberta), in which he was awarded a lifetime membership.
In his spare time, in addition to being an entrepreneur and a dynamic father to six children (and later, eight grandchildren), Mart also enjoyed traveling with his wife and his extended family to many interesting & exotic locations throughout the world. He was also a competent woodworker and carpenter, and not only crafted some of his own furniture, but in the late 1980's successfully renovated and enlarged his original 1958 home in Britannia, mainly to allow more room for large family gatherings.
Throughout his life, Mart continued to maintain a long-term interest in sports, one that he shared with his wife, children, and later his grandchildren, and for whom he became their number one fan, attending many of their important events to cheer them on to do their best and have fun!
Mart was a story maker and a story teller, often regaling others with stories from his life, business, and family. Through our memories of his many stories he will live on.
Mart is survived by his loving wife Elaine, his children Marilyn, Sheila (and her husband Michael Whitt), John, Lynda, Cameron (and his wife Teresa), and Valerie Sporck, and his grandchildren Chris, Katy, Hillary, Lauren, Hailey, Sydney, Claire, and Austin. He will also be missed by his brother Bert, sister-in-law Dorcas Berry and her husband Wally, sister-in-law JoAnne Wagner, as well as his many nieces and nephews. He was predeceased by his parents, John Everett and Margarete, his brother Jack, and his brothers-in-law Bill Wagner and Bob Dunn.
A Memorial Service was held at the Living Spirit United Church (629 - 49 Avenue S.W.) on Friday, January 18 at 11:30 a.m., with a reception and celebration of his life that followed at the Glencoe Club from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. If friends so desire, donations can be made in Mart's memory to the Alberta Heart and Stroke Foundation (www.heartandstroke.ab.ca). Condolences can be sent via the on-line version of this announcement, or c/o his eldest son's email account: john.kernahan@shaw.ca Thank you for sharing in Mart's memory.