Obituary of Robert William Ronald Fraser

God called a good man home Sat Dec 27, 2025. Ron’s earthly trials were over & I choose to believe Ron is at peace in Heaven with those who loved him. Ron led his life with integrity, gentleness, sweetness, & with flashes of wit & humour right to the end.

Ron was born at the Aberdeen Hospital, New Glasgow, Mar 20, 1945. Ron’s parents were Elizabeth (Cluney) & Arthur Fraser (Libby & Duckie).

Ron went to Stellarton Junior High School, then West Pictou District High, in Lyons Brook & graduated in 1963. Ron was always a good student usually at/near the top of his class. Libby & Arthur were very proud of their son but Libby would have worried for Ron’s safety because Ron was keen on a number of intramural sports. Worst of all for Libby, was that Ron roared up & down the field with the rugby team.

What Ron loved even more was being a member of the Westville. He was a part of Air Cadets, with whom he had hoped to learn to fly. He was also a part of the Hopewell 4-H Calf Club showing his calf at the Pictou & North Colchester Exhibition. Ron was a lone Scout as there were no Boy Scout troops close by. Ron was creative, inventive & very self-motivated. He assembled his own lawnmower as a teenager. Ron & his dad also worked their farm with a team of Percherons into the 50s.

After public & high schools Ron lived on campus to attend the Nova Scotia Agricultural College, in Truro. Then the University of Guelph in Ontario. Ron studied Water Resources Engineering at the U of G, that the NSAC, wasn’t then offering. Ron graduated from the University of Guelph in 1968. Ron & I met at the U of G in 1967. We were married at St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church, in Vaughan, ON, June 25, 1971. Ron almost didn’t work in Ontario. The day before Ron was to start driving back home to Westville, Ron heard from Dufferin Construction where he was hired & worked his entire career building roads, bridges & airplane runways from Ontario, to Alberta, Chile & Nova Scotia. Ron started his career with Dufferin as a Surveyor being provided with a Volkswagen Beetle. Ron retired from Dufferin as their Head Estimator in 2005.

We lived in rural Campbellville, Ontario, when it was rural, west of Toronto, near Milton, Ontario until 2010. We moved back to Westville, within a 10-minute drive of Ron’s farm on Foxbrook Road. The 10-minute drive was Ron’s stipulation as to house location.

Ron faithfully attended St. Andrews, Presbyterian Church Westville from the time we moved here in 2010. Ron kept his Bibles by his bed & read them nightly. Ron said Grace before meals as long as he was able, then I said it for us. We always held hands as we said Grace. Ron walked daily with his Nordic walking poles. That’s where we met Angell Street friends & doggies. Ron was an avid golfer practicing putting in the living room & his long game with a net in the backyard & in the winter with the net in the garage. His favorite courses were Hopewell, $5 charged on the honor system, Golf Mount William & eventually the Abercrombie golf course for their carts.

Ron‘s childhood was filled with visitors, relatives & friends from the community & from Duckie’s work as a locomotive operator for CN. Ron spent a lot of time shaking oats in a can to get the horses to come to be harnessed for work.

Ron’s heart was always in the country from his time on the farm & in Cadets & 4-H. Ron’s fondness for 4-H deepened as he worked in Ontario for the Department of Agriculture & oversaw & worked with 4-H members there. He was also a sheep judge at shows in ON. As a teenager, Ron was sent as one of 2 representatives of 4H in Pictou County to the Royal Winter Fair in Toronto & had his picture taken with Prime Minister Pearson.

Ron‘s diagnosis was bleak: glioblastoma, 3 cancer tumors in the front of Ron’s brain that were inoperable & aggressive. Family & friends from Australia, Hawaii, Italy, Mexico, BC, Alberta, Florida & Ontario prayed for Ron. I quietly hoped for a miracle. The miracle was Ron enduring his fate prayerfully until the end. We had a month at home, which was what we both had hoped, time together in our own home.

So many people helped. All were blessings in our lives: Doctors, Nurses, Specialists, Therapists, in Halifax & at The Aberdeen, Palliative Care, VON, respite workers, family from near & far, friends we met on our daily walks, neighbours, & church family. Special thanks to Rev. Gail Johnson-Murdock, Seymore & Donna Dixon, John & Verna Seaman, Dr. Lisa McNiven, Ron’s family doctor, Dr. Ghoreishi, Reset Health, Fahad & Lucille, Ron’s cousin, Diane MacLeod, Henry & Anna Friesen, Rod & Sandy Mackey, Will & Miranda Thomson & sons, Andrew & Riley Francis & sons, Eagles Funeral Home. Apologies for those names escaped me. You all have special places in my heart.

A funeral service for Ron will be held on Saturday, January 17 at 2pm at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church in Westville with Rev. Gail Murdoch officiating.

Please, no flowers. Donations in Ron‘s name can be made to St. Andrews Presbyterian Church Westville, Pictou 4H or the United Church in Westville, food bank, or just do a kindness to someone and think of Ron.