Roy Mulligan, a long time resident of the Beaverlodge area, passed away peacefully with family by his side on Wednesday, December 11, 2013 at home in Beaverlodge, Alberta at the age of 79 years. Roy was born on October 7, 1934 on the family homestead at Hayfield just outside out Beaverlodge. He passed away on December 11, 2013 at home - about 14 feet from where he was born. Roy married Patricia McEachern on June 15, 1955. Together Roy and Pat raised four children: Dorothy, Anne, Marilyn and Gordon. The family now includes 9 grandchildren and 12 great grandchildren. Most of the family continues to live in the Peace country, and on typical Sundays lots of the crew still gets together at the farm to visit and enjoy a meal. Roy attended school at Hayfield which was only a half mile from home which was kind of handy. It was also handy that the school teacher stayed at the Mulligan home some of the time which no doubt resulted in Roy getting some extra tutoring. Roy was a farmer, cat skinner, logger, handyman, a very successful big game hunter and most importantly an incredible husband, father, grandfather and great grandfather. He also had a great habit of putting future in-laws through the paces before they joined the family - sometimes scaring them with his hooks. Roy had a very big heart and a strong personality. He would always help anyone with anything, whether it was repairing machinery or harvesting crops or babysitting livestock, or plowing their driveways or even pulling the school bus out of the ditch or snow bank. People from all over the countryside would come to the farm and ask Roy for some obscure part or piece to repair something they had broken. It might take awhile, however, there was seldom a case when Roy would not come up with the right part or one that was close enough it would work. To some it might seem that Roy was a bit accident prone - there was the time that he cut his fingers with the power saw, then the time when a neighbors bull got in a scrap with Roy's bull and the result was Roy getting run over and having to use a wheelchair for a few weeks. Or the time he fell off the ladder when he was working on a threshing machine and broke his collar bone and smacked his head pretty hard, or when he was skiing and hit a patch of ice and broke his shoulder. Roy's most significant accident occurred in September of 1975 when he lost both his arms in a round baler and suffered severe burns over most of his body. Through all of these incidents Roy's strong will and persistence pulled him through and made him stronger. After the baler accident Roy was equipped with mechanical arms and if there was ever a torture test for artificial prosthesis, Roy was the one that put them through it. He and Pat continued to farm for several years after Roy got his artificial arms. His hooks were used as hammers, fencing pliers, and grounding rods for the welder, amongst other things. On at least one occasion Roy accidently welded his hooks together. Once in awhile he would hold onto the electric fence with one hook and invite the grandkids to grab his other hook - this gave a whole new meaning to "pull my finder"! It was Roy's positive personality and his proficiency with his mechanical arms that earned him the nickname "Happy Hooker". Roy really loved the farm and particularly the huge garden that was planted every year. It was tough to get Roy to leave the farm voluntarily to go on a trip, even to Edmonton. A couple years ago though, Pat and Roy made the trek to Phoenix to visit and they toured the area with their daughter Anne and husband Jim. It was good fun to show them some of the sights like Las Vegas, the Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon. One of Roy's favorite sayings was "might as well - can't dance", and even though he was a very good dancer especially the polka, we all knew that when Roy said this we knew he meant we might as well get on with whatever it was that we were doing. I expect Roy is right now wishing that we will all get on with the rest of our lives and remember him as the positive person that he was. Roy was predeceased by both of his parents, Jim and Annie and by his older brother Bill. In respect to Roy’s wishes, no formal funeral service will be held. A lunch in memory of Roy was held on Tuesday, December 17, 2013 from 2:00-4:00PM at the Rio Grande Community Hall. Interment will be at a later date. For friend's so wishing, donations may be made in memory of Roy to the Rio Grande Sports Association.