Major A. Gerald McInnes (retired)

October 6, 1929 - December 11, 2017

Allan Gerald McInnes, known as Gerald, was born in Winnipeg Manitoba to Allan and Theresa McInnes. Gerald was the third of five children and travelled a great deal in the west of Canada with his parents, Salvation Army Officers to their various appointments. He spent the majority of his early years in Vancouver, Victoria and New Westminster.

His early days were spent playing soccer, sometimes even paid, working as a Page boy for Victoria government, fighting forest fires, in the fishing industry and finally a draftsman in New Westminster. Here he met and fell in love with Norma Delamont.

Gerald made a decision to follow Jesus in his early 20’s through a SA Band Council and afterwards decided to become a Salvation Army Officer and headed to Training College in Toronto. His first posting were as a Corps Officer in Windsor, London and Montreal. He then married Norma Delamont and received his first posting as a married couple to Dauphin Manitoba. He remained a Corps Officer through Meadow Lake, Prince Albert and Medicine Hat.

Gerald and Norma had three children, Kevin, Brent and Carolyn between Dauphin, Meadow Lake and Prince Albert.

Gerald’s next posting was to Women’s Social Services in Windsor Ontario where he began his training for Hospital Administration. This continued through Ottawa, St. John’s NFLD and finally back to Montreal, where he became the Administrator of the Catherine Booth Hospital. He remained an Hospital Administrator through Calgary, Saskatoon, Toronto Scarborough Grace, and finally Vancouver Grace Hospital. In his last year of formal service to the Salvation Army, he served as a chaplain for the lower mainland region.

Brent predeceased Gerald in 1985 in a tragic accident and Norma passed away from heart complication in 1992. Gerald remarried in 1994 to Catherine Langfield where they lived in Langley BC, Ottawa and finally Toronto at the Meighen Residence and Manor.

Gerald was an avid outdoors enthusiast, involved in golf, softball, hockey coaching, backpacking and canoeing. He hiked or canoed the West Coast Trail 3 times, the Bowron Lakes, Athabasca River and Sechelt Inlet. He loved the Salvation Army Camps and frequented Jackson’s Point and Camp Sunrise and made many great friends through those connections.

Gerald was a profoundly genuine lover of people and Jesus who has greatly impacted many people across Canada. He was a strongly opinionated man who was not afraid to say his piece but he was kind and gentle and served people well. He shared the love of Christ with all those he served or played with.

He will be deeply missed by his wife, Catherine, brother, Earl McInnes, son, Kevin (Deborah) McInnes, daughter, Carolyn (Fred) Brake, daughter-in-law Janet McInnes, stepchildren, Ruth (Lorne) Kearnan, Dawn Langfield, and Vic (Susan) Langfield, his grandchildren, Shawna Rose (David) Miller, Christa (Rob) Unruh, Lindsay (Abe) Dyck, Adam (Jen) McInnes, Alexander (Chandel) McInnes, Amanda Brake, Allan (Janelle) Brake, Jaime and McKenzie Kearnan, and all his great grandchildren; Aiden, Grace-lynn, Quinn, Emery, Anderson, Harlyn, Alyea and