William John Lancaster, II

William John Lancaster, II, was born again to life August 11, 2015 at his home in Aurora at the age of 101. He was born on April 13, 1914 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan to William John Lancaster Sr. and Edith Allor Lancaster. He was preceded in death by his wife of 68 years, Anne. Survivors include their children Sister Gail, Bill (Kathy), Hilary, Claire (Scott), and Leslie (George); 15 grandchildren, & 24 great grandchildren. Bill was an inspiration to all. He was fun loving and ever the optimist. He never held grudges and was truly forgiving of all. A Visitation will take place at Horan & McConaty Family Chapel, 11150 East Dartmouth Avenue, (at Parker Road) in Aurora, from 5:00 until 7:00 in the evening with rosary at 7:00 on August 19, 2015. Mass of Christian Burial will be preceded by Visitation at 9:30 in the morning and begin at 10:00 on August 20, 2015 at The Church of the Risen Christ, 3060 South Monaco Parkway in Denver. A luncheon will follow. Interment will take place at Fort Logan National Cemetery, Staging Area C, in Denver at 1:15 in the afternoon. Memorial contributions are suggested to The Servants of God's Love Community, Ann Arbor, MI. Thank you for coming today to help us pay tribute to our father, grandfather and great-grandfather, a man who lived a long and productive life of 101 years and left a lasting mark on his family and all those who came in contact with him. It is with pride and deep gratitude to God that I share a very small snippet of just who he was and the character of this great man. "" I Am The Luckiest Man In The World."" I heard my father speak these words over and over again. We all did, for he truly loved life with all its ups and downs, challenges, sorrows, joys and victories. Optimistic: Our father was always very optimistic. We often felt that he looked at the world through rose-colored glasses. No matter how bad a situation was it would always become better. Dad begin learning this at a very early age. When he was just two years old, his father took the family on an outing to the shores of Lake St. Claire. As Dad walked on the shore barefooted, he stepped on a sand covered bed of red-hot charcoals left from the night before. His feet sustained third degree burns and his toes became permanently bent. For the rest of his life he experienced pain whenever he walked. As a result of this trauma, he also lost his speech for a couple of years and once he began speaking again he could not pronounce words correctly. This incident seriously initiated my father's character development. With his parents' encouragement he learned to walk and run in spite of his feet and played every sport. Later, he danced away many, many hours on those feet with his bride of 68 years, our mother Anne. Never once did I hear him complain about his feet. Spiritual: Our father was raised Catholic; attending Mass on Sundays and following the precepts of the Church. In turn, that is how he raised his children. It was pretty matter of fact. Dad served as an usher at St. Theresa's and later here at Risen Christ and was at Mass every Sunday. He was disappointed when he could no longer help in that capacity. Watching him over the years I slowly began to see a change as he developed an ever-deepening relationship of gratitude, love, trust, and abandonment to the will of God. You could sense the power of this relationship by the deep peace he always exhibited. He would never go to bed without saying his prayers. I recall a time when I was young and went to my parent's bedroom and saw my father kneeling next to his bed, head bowed, saying his nightly prayers. This continued until his death. Tom, his grandson and caregiver would pray with him every night. Dad always had a spiritual saying or Scripture that he would pick out from a book or article that he read. The last one I saw before he died was MICAH 6:8 ""You have already been told what is right and what Yahweh asks of you. Only this; to act justly, to love tenderly and to walk humbly with your God."" Family: Dad met our mother Anne at a dance. She was a pretty, petite French girl and the best dancer on the floor. The first and most important reason that Dad thought he was the luckiest man in the world was because Mom waited seven years for him to ask her to marry him. Aside from his love and devotion for his Annie, my father told me that the reason he got married was to have a family. My parents were blessed with four girls and a boy. I believe that Dad would have preferred four sons and a daughter. As the years passed, that would change. What joy it was to be a man with a loving wife and four daughters dotting over him, in his later years. He was happy to have his son there too. Dad loved parties especially with his family. The more family that gathered, the better. Every holiday was a reason to have the family together at his home. He cherished his role as the head of the family and these were the times he was the happiest, visiting with his children, grand-children or great-grandchildren and telling them all of his stories. Love of Country: Dad was very patriotic always standing and placing his hand over his heart whenever the National Anthem was played. He always said that the United States was the best country in the world. Shortly before WWII broke out Dad's father died. He quit college and went to work to support the family. He received his draft notice and dutifully went down to be inducted. Upon learning about the Flying Cadets he applied to enter the program but hit a brick wall, with one complication after another. With persistence and by the grace of God he overcame each obstacle and was finally accepted. He graduated as a Bombardier and was commissioned a 1st Lieutenant, a cause for great celebration! (Now he had a good job and could support a wife. On the day before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, he married Anne, the love of his life.) Dad served in the 4th Air Force and was stationed in the Allution Islands. He was extremely fortunate to survive the plane crash, that claimed the lives of some of his crew, sustaining a serious compound fracture of his leg. He spent the next eighteen months in traction at Fitzsimons Army Hospital (his introduction to Denver). For the rest of the war he commanded a squadron of officers whose mission was to train foreign officers on the use of American equipment. Integrity: Following his honorable discharge, he embarked on a sales career with The Gates Rubber Co. which spanned thirty years. Dad always put his customers first, even if it put him in jeopardy. He worked his way up in management, retiring as a National Account Manager. I was able to meet many of the people Dad supervised and was delighted and proud to learn how much they respected and enjoyed him. People always commented that Dad was a man of his word. Forgiving: Dad always seemed to give everyone the benefit of the doubt. I do not remember my father ever holding a grudge. If he became angry with someone he would go and work out his anger by doing dishes, scrubbing floors or working in the yard. When the anger was gone, it was as if the incident never happened. If it involved one of us children, we were punished and the wrong was forgotten. Dad was a survivor in every sense of the word. Nothing got him down. He made it through broken legs, car accidents, two brain surgeries, a couple open-heart surgeries, cancer and other maladies. He faced all of these things with a calm faith and positive attitude and always came out smiling and smelling like a rose on the other end. Truly, we can all say that Dad's life was a life well lived. He was friendly, fun loving, determined, hard working, always up for a game of golf (until the age of 98), a new challenge or a spin on the dance floor. He was a man of faith, a man of prayer, a man of integrity, who could be taken at his word, a man of generosity and a man whose heart was big enough to love anyone and everyone. He was a man who lived every single day to the fullest including his very last day and a man with no regrets. Now he is walking humbly with God. Something he strove for all of his life. How blessed we all were to know and love him and to be loved by him! Thanks Dad! We love you! Eulogy for William J. Lancaster Written and delivered by his son Bill Lancaster August 20, 2015 Please click on ""Sign Guestbook"" to share memories of Bill and messages of condolence with his family.