The eulogy for Murray Dodds was prepared by Murray’s family and read by Murray’s brother-in-law Les Langager.

Murray Malcolm Dodds was born in Outlook, Saskatchewan on September 21st, 1956, to Mac and Lillian Dodds. Murray was raised on the family farm on the edge of Loreburn, with his siblings Glenn and Judy. Murray wasn’t always easy on his mom and dad, but he loved and respected them, and they always had his back no matter what. Their constant influence made Murray who he was.

Growing up, sometimes Judy and Murray would plot against Glenn since he was the oldest, but typically Glenn and Murray would enjoy tormenting Judy, largely because of the way she would react. It was all fun and games until Murray would cross the line and Judy would grab the meat cleaver from the kitchen and chase after him. Murray always ran because he thought she might be crazy enough to use it, although Judy is adamant that she never would. One time when Mac and Lil left the house, the three siblings took an entire crate of oranges upstairs and proceeded to throw them back and forth between the bedrooms, causing a huge mess of the entire upper floor. It sounded like the horsing around was common and resulted in plenty of damage, including drapes being pulled clean out of the drywall.

Murray attended Loreburn Public School until it closed, and then attended Loreburn Central School until he graduated in 1974. His mom always prioritized education, but Murray’s only real goal was to end up in “the bottom half of the top third” of the class. Murray never took notes, rarely studied, and only used one notebook for all of high school, but he had a natural aptitude for Math and Science; so, it all worked out.

After graduating high school, Murray would move to Saskatoon for work once the farm season was complete. He worked for two years at the Allan potash mine, and then worked at Saskatoon Overhead Door and Superior Propane. His first “apartment” was rented for $50 a month split between three people. A beer box was used for the lampshade, and they did dishes in the bathtub since they didn’t have a kitchen. They also didn’t have a fridge, so they just had a jar of mustard on the counter to make sandwiches, and the beer had to be downed quickly. Their only method of cooking was a hot plate that had to be plugged in next to the lamp. When Murray wasn’t working in Saskatoon, he was either playing sports or socializing with his many friends over a few beers or a “double dark in a dirty glass.”

Murray loved all “real” sports - particularly hockey, baseball, curling, and football; all of which he played competitively, coached, and watched as a passionate fan. Murray was an avid curler in the Saskatoon Superleague and later in Davidson. He won many bonspiels and awards at high levels of competition. Several lifelong friends and crazy stories were made along the way, many of which Murray waited until much later in life to tell the boys. Murray’s favorite sport was hockey, and he spent countless hours coaching, managing, and watching his boys play. When at the rink, he preferred to work the penalty box if he wasn’t on the bench, because he liked to be “right in the s***.” When at home his happy place was sitting sideways and curled up in his favorite chair with his little dog Rosie, a Coke, and some Cheese Balls, watching whatever sport was in season.

Murray loved driving and had a strong appreciation for nice cars and the open road. In 1976, he bought a new Pontiac Trans-Am Firebird with a 455 after saving up for two years. Les Langager was with Murray the day that he picked up his new car and it didn't take long to get the first of many speeding tickets. Shortly after getting the Trans-Am, Brian Brown was helping Murray install a CB radio. They were under the car looking for a place to run wires and set it up, when two cops grabbed them, and threw them on the hood as they thought they were hiding something. They then began to tear the car apart. To quote Murray "them pr***s thought they were being all thorough with their search, but they never even found my whiskey pump" which was the repurposed windshield washer fluid tank, installed under the hood with a pump that ran to a tap in the glove box, controlled by a toggle switch. The Trans-Am is still in the family and the whiskey pump is still operational.

Murray was a proud farmer who truly loved the lifestyle and community. Like many farm kids, he started working on the farm at a young age. By the age of eleven, he was driving the grain truck at harvest, which led to his first of many run-ins with the law. He was pulled over by police and they were surprised to see little Murray behind the wheel. Being the stubborn guy Murray always was, when the officer asked him to pull the truck off the road, he refused since they told him he wasn’t allowed to drive. The truck was left in the middle of the road, Lil had to go to court to plead guilty, and in the end, Murray was moved to the combine.

Murray still looked forward to running equipment every spring and fall, and particularly enjoyed running the seeder, swather, and his faithful John Deere 9600 combine. He always took pride in seeing a job well done and got great satisfaction from working the land and growing crops. Murray wasn’t always the most safety conscious guy, and could occasionally be seen going down the field, standing outside on the tractor steps having a smoke, with shorts and no shirt, while the tractor was locked on auto-steer. He also managed to end up in the ER for stitches almost every time he attempted a more serious repair. There was a reason that Glenn took care of the majority of the machinery while they farmed together.

Murray was fortunate enough to be able to work alongside family for his entire farming career. The farm has always been operated as a family business, and Murray made sure that “family” came first, and the “business” came second. Earlier in his farming career he was able to farm with his Grandpa, George; Father, Mac; and Uncles, Jim, and Bob. He was also fortunate to farm alongside his brother Glenn for the majority of his career. Glenn and Murray were best friends, worked well together as business partners, and had enjoyed their frequent “safety meetings” - back in the day. They were both always able to keep sight of what was really important, even in the most stressful of situations. Murray enjoyed working as a team and always made hired hands feel like part of the family. Fraser Moore and Dean Peardon had both worked seasonally on the farm for over 20 years, and Murray cherished the time they worked together. Murray was still actively farming with his three boys, as well as hired hand Austyn Lemcke.

More than anything, Murray loved spending quality time with family, and his family loved spending time with him. When his girlies were young, they would spend many weekends in Loreburn. Amy and Amber often spent time fishing with their dad in the summer and ice fishing in the winter. Murray was always so happy when he and Leigh met up with the girls and their families for a visit. He loved to hear about Amy and Amber’s many adventures, he loved the spark they have and their passion for life. He was so proud of his sons-in-law Tim and Chris and was happy his girls had found such good guys.

Murray was a fun dad and Leigh would sometimes say he was like having an extra kid. He was an excellent father to all of his children, and was always available with unconditional love, support, and mentorship at any hour of the day. Murray was so proud of his children and their accomplishments. His boys were a constant source of amazement to him: the men they have become, their work ethic, the strong values they all have, and of course that witty sense of humor they all share. Murray was their biggest fan! When the boys were small Murray knew he needed to make some changes in order to be the dad his children needed. Murray was coming up to his 25th year of sobriety, something he was very proud of.

Murray spent countless hours driving the boys to hockey. They were always fun trips spent singing and laughing. There was often some extra entertainment, as Murray liked to come into the icy rink parking lots fishtailing and cutting donuts. Murray also had developed a very close relationship with his daughter’s-in-law Alissa and Chloe, and they would often bond over jokes at the expense of George, Nick, and John. He was so happy that he and Leigh got to spend time with Keara on their recent trip to Boston. Murray loved spoiling all of his grandchildren and had been recently enjoying snuggles with his newest grandson, William. Murray loved all his brothers and sisters in law, all the nieces and nephews and great nieces and nephews. I have no doubt they all have a funny Murray story.

Murray always looked forward to the many family traditions that developed over the years, such as: weekly Sunday brunch; hot wings on Christmas Day; Christmas lunch at Manos with Amy and Tim, Amber and Chris, and all of the grandchildren; huge suppers in the field at harvest time; and water sliding at the hotel over New Years when the kids were younger.

The family looked forward to their time at Emma Lake every summer. Murray loved boating, campfires, ice cream, and basically everything that comes with lake life. Aside from the mosquitos and horse flies that is… Murray hated them with a passion and would use almost an entire can of bug spray every day! Shares in OFF mosquito spray will probably plummet next summer. A couple of years ago Murray and Leigh purchased the cabin they had rented for over 25 years at Emma Lake and were enjoying fixing it up and spending more time there every summer.

Murray always had a twinkle in his eye and a unique way of putting things, he enjoyed coming up with funny words and phrases. He loved to make people laugh. For instance: a pot-licker was an older person; a box of grays was a car full of older people heading to the casino; driving way too slow; pan-cookies were pancakes; poe-licky was Chinese food; and a gut bomb was a rink burger - one of his favorite foods.

Through the years all of the family’s dogs learned the phrase “bed-ease-a-wooze,” this meant it was time to head to their bed for the night and they all did. If they weren’t moving fast enough Murray would add “get moving or I’ll kick you’re a**.” He never would have… but it always got the dogs moving a little quicker! Some of Murray’s words and phrases are too colorful to share but one more that had become significant was “hit the button!” which basically meant just do it. Murray and Leigh would be researching a trip, concert, or really anything they were interested in, and the discussions didn’t last long before Murray would say “hit the button!” and Leigh did.

A big part of Murray’s dream was to travel. Both Murray and Leigh loved to go on adventures, and they had lots! They were working their way through seeing all the NHL teams and MLB stadiums. They loved going to concerts and comedy shows together and had in fact booked tickets to see The Rolling Stones in Cleveland on the day Murray passed. Winters in the sun were a must and he loved having a year-round tan. Of all of the places they traveled Murray’s favorite was Hawaii and he was especially fond of their trips to beautiful Maui.

Murray truly loved Leigh - it didn’t matter where they were or what they were doing - they always had fun. Murray wouldn’t have had it any other way - they were best friends, partners in crime, and had a truly inspirational relationship. Murray would willingly jump on board with anything that was important to Leigh. They spent days putting up yard decorations for Halloween and Christmas. Murray loved all the flowers in the yard and most mornings you could find him with a coffee in hand checking out all the flowerbeds and garden, doing a little dead heading along the way. Murray made sure Leigh always had a fresh bunch of flowers in the house and he often surprised her with arranged deliveries to hotel rooms when they were on holiday around Valentines. For every trip they went on, Murray made sure that Leigh found a Christmas tree ornament, picked out a Pandora charm, and visited the local Coach store. He spoiled her every day. They spent hours talking about life, their future, and their love for their growing family.

Murray’s passing was a shock to all of us… The weekend before, the family was together; upcoming farm business and senior hockey was discussed; they ate pan-cookies for brunch and poe-licky for supper. Later Murray kicked everyone’ s a** in cards - the score wasn’t even close. On the day he passed, Murray and Leigh were having lunch together in the city and talked about how grateful they were for the life they had. Murray was living his dream. He was proud to still be putting in long hours on the farm working with his sons and was thankful that he no longer had to do any of the “s*** jobs” as he called them, the boys got to do them instead. Murray knew the Dodds farm legacy was going to live on, something that was very important to him.

Murray loved life, believed in living life with no regrets, and lived each day like it was his last. There wasn’t a single day without laughter, even in the toughest of times, Murray looked for the good. “It could always be worse” was a common statement. There was no quit in Murray, when things were hard, he’d just “back up and take another run at ‘er.” He always liked to say that “you never holler woah in a mud hole,” meaning just keep going and you’ll make it through. Murray would tell everyone that if something was to happen to him, that it shouldn’t be sad. He had a good life, had more than a lifetime of laughs and adventures. He would want us all to remember the laughs, tell the stories, and not hesitate to “hit the button!”

Murray is lovingly remembered by his wife of 30 years, Leigh (Ogilvie) Dodds; their children, George (Alissa) Dodds, Nick (Keara Carter) Dodds, and John (Chloe) Dodds; children from his previous marriage, Amy (Tim) Haberlach, and Amber (Chris) Addy; grandchildren; William Dodds, Asher Haberlach, Rya Haberlach, Eva Addy, and Jayda Addy; brother; Glenn (Cindy) Dodds; sister, Judy (Les) Langager; brothers-in-law, Murray Ogilvie, Harley (Joanne) Ogilvie, Clay (Jamie) Ogilvie; sister-in-law, Laurie (Randy) Lemon, and numerous nieces and nephews. He was predeceased by his parents, George (Mac) and Lillian Dodds; parents-in-law, Earl, and Millie Ogilvie; sisters-in-law, Arlene Dodds, and Jodie Ogilvie; and nephew, Kirk Langager. A public Celebration of Life was held on Thursday, November 30, 2023, at the Strongfield Community Hall. Internment occurred at the Loreburn Cemetery. Memorial donations may be made to the Village of Loreburn Fire Department.

The family of Murray Dodds would like to extend a sincere thank you to all of the friends and family from near and far who took the time to reach out with kind words, food, flowers, and memorial donations over the past few weeks. The support from Murray’s community has been unbelievable and is appreciated more than can be expressed. Thank you.