Heavy equipment mechanic was sportsman and family man
SUSSEX CORNER - Heavy equipment mechanic, sportsman and family man Albert Miner of Sussex Corner was a "really great guy" who had a passion for everything that he did, says his wife of 28 years.
"Whether he was fixing something at home, or starting a project at work, he researched it and it had to be just so, or he wouldn't bother with it," she said.
"Work was the same way," she added. "If he was taking on a project, he put research into it and it had to be just so."
Miner, 53, died on March 3 following a courageous six-month battle with pancreatic cancer.
He had spent the last 23 years in the employ of the provincial Department of Transportation in Sussex and living in this neighbouring community, where he and Susan raised their two grown daughters, Krista Miner, and Megan Thorne of Wards Creek.
Miner was also a former area vice-president for CUPE Local 1190.
"He was a great dad and a wonderful husband and really loved his job," said Susan. "And he really liked what he did outside of work "¦ playing pickup basketball, playing hockey for the Woodchucks of the gentlemen's league, coaching Megan in high school girls hockey and girls softball, and helping out with the annual Dairy Town Classic basketball tournament."
A real Mr. Fix-It and helpful by nature, he also was quick to pitch in on community projects such as the playground at his daughters' elementary school.
Born in Wolfville, N.S., on July 11, 1954, Albert Miner Murray was a son of the late Gerald and Anna (Swim) Miner.
Besides his wife and daughters, his survivors include two brothers, Alex and Leigh, both of Saint John; two sisters, Geraldine Perrier of Calgary and Bonnie Lavoie of Miramichi; two grandsons, Tyler and Cody; and his father-in-law, Charles Swain, a retired staff sergeant with the Saint John Police Force.
Miner was just a toddler when his family moved from Nova Scotia to Fredericton and then, Saint John, where the sports-loving youngster spent much of his youth at the Saint John Boys and Girls Club. When he got older, he drove the club van and looked after the flooding of nearby Chown Field as a skating rink.
He and Susan, who worked at Towers Department Store in Prince Edward Square, met through mutual friends in 1975. Before marrying on Aug. 11, 1979, at St. Joachim's Church, Miner completed a heavy-equipment mechanic's course at NBCC Saint John.
He worked for the community college in Saint John until moving to Newcastle (now Miramichi) in 1984, when the heavy equipment mechanic's course was transferred there. But a year later, he got a civil service transfer to the DOT in Sussex, where he repaired pieces of heavy equipment and, at times, even river ferries.
Susan said her hubby was big on education and believed that keeping his kids involved in sports would help keep them out of trouble.
"Albert was quite a serious guy, but yet he had a sense of humour about him; dry probably, but he made me laugh a lot," she said.
"He loved people," she added. "If he met you, he would strike up a conversation, no problem. He had a lot to talk about because he was very smart."
They had escaped to Florida a couple of times in recent years, but more often than not, Bangor, Maine is where they went to get away from it all. Miner also looked forward to the all-male summer escape by the Dairy Town Classic organizers to a camp at Magaguadavic Lake in York County.
Miner died much too soon, Susan said, because he had so much more living to do.
Among his retirement plans, she said, was his dream of building a wooden canoe and making a trip west to check out the giant machinery at Alberta's Tar Sands.
But knowing his love of sports, said Susan, what saddens her most is that he will never get to see his grandsons play any of the games he liked to watch.
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