Obituary of Walter Mason

To Watch the recorded version of the service click on this link: 

http://video.ibm.com/embed/recorded/132909152

Mason, Walter Alfred 1940 – 2022

Our brother and uncle Walter was taken from us at Louis Brier Care Home, Vancouver on 4 November 2022.

Walter was born, the eldest of five, 24 November 1940 on the farm north of Tessier, Sask, with Ushers Syndrome that caused him to be profoundly deaf, to have poor balance and to have progressive severe tunnel vision. From 1946, Walter was away from home attending the Saskatchewan School for the Deaf in Saskatoon. He graduated in 1958 and then worked for Arrow Printing for several years. He spent the summers attending Camp Knutson and being an assistant scoutmaster for the Deaf troop in Saskatoon.

In 1968, he went to Gallaudet College in Washington, DC where he earned a bachelor’s degree in history. During this time, his profound Christian belief grew and sustained him. He loved the United States. He worked for Ginn Publishing in Washington and did a lot of travelling in his summer breaks. Alone, he hitchhiked 10,000 kilometres around the country in 1972 and spending six weeks in Europe in 1973. He also made trips with friends or deaf groups until his leg was broken badly when a car hit him in Arkansas. He came home to heal and began work as a sorter for Canada Post. By then, he was living on his own in Saskatoon.

In 1982. Walter attended a deaf-blind conference in Washington, in 1987 toured Europe including stops in Warsaw and Moscow, took a cruise to Alaska in 1990, and an all-deaf cruise of the Caribbean in 1992. Walter was a proud member of the Deaf Community. He attended many deaf-blind conferences & served a long term as president of the Deaf-Blind Association of Saskatchewan. We regret we were deterred from learning the American Sign Language, but rather we communicated by hand spelling and written notes.

Family was important to him and he always attended family get-togethers. He bestowed small gifts on his nieces and nephew. He visited with our cousins in the Prince Albert area, in British Columbia, and Michigan. He independently and avidly studied our family tree before computers made the research so much easier. He was an intrepid photographer and family photo archivist.

Walter accomplished a lot. He retired to Vancouver but his last few years at Louis Brier with his developing dementia, no visitors due to the Covid restrictions and no other deaf people in the facility, must have been bewildering and frustrating for him. Walter was predeceased by his parents William (Bill) L Mason (1999), Clara E Underhill (2007), and his sister June C Mason (2019). He is survived by brothers Robert L (Bob) and wife Cora of Kenaston, SK, William S (Bill) and wife Sharon of Victoria, and sister Marian F Mehew and husband Will of Saskatoon, nephew Trenton Mason and nieces Landra Pegado, Jessie Katzenberger, Vanessa Lund & Katrina Mason. His cremains will be laid with his parents and sister at Woodlawn Cemetery, Saskatoon. 

A Memorial Service will be held on Saturday, July 15th 2023 at 1:00 p.m. from Saskatoon Funeral Home.