The late Frank Deagle would have been honoured and proud to be recognized at the Remembrance Day ceremony at the Jasper Activity Centre, said son Greg Deagle.

“He certainly would have been very interested in being able to look out at the audience and see all the familiar faces,” Deagle said. “He was firmly rooted in the community of Jasper. It would have warmed all the cockles of his heart.”

At the ceremony, Deagle accepted service medals awarded posthumously to his father Frank, a seaman in the Canadian merchant navy from 1941-1944.

Frank, who passed away in 1983, was a kind, caring, compassionate man with a dedicated air about him, Deagle said. “This is significant for our family because Nov. 13 will be 25 years since he passed away,” he said.

Though he was generally quiet about his military service, Frank told his children about serving in the south seas. “One thing he used to tell us is he sailed in and out of Sydney Harbour in Australia on seven separate occasions,” Deagle said. “He was stationed in Fiji for two years and taught the native Fijians how to box.”

Frank’s daughter Michele came in from Canmore for the ceremony, and said tales from the sea were her bedtime stories. “[My father] told me about torpedoes coming up out of the water, the dangers of life at sea,” she said. “He was a warm, generous, caring man, and a wonderful father. The best.”