It is with profound sadness that our family announces the peaceful passing of George Phillip Dorish, at the age of 72 on Sunday the 10th of April, 2022 at Grace Hospice in the William Booth Care Home.
George grew up in Rural Saskatchewan in and around the town of Goodeve. He was predeceased by his father Steve in 1970 and his mother Eleanor in 2020. George leaves behind to mourn his death, his wife of 52 years Elaine, Son Rob (Rhonda) and Daughter Kim. Also left behind are his grandchildren Mathew, Samantha (Brandon) Breanne and Jake, all of Regina, SK. He is also survived by his Brother Danny (Irene) of Toronto and his sister Joyce (John) of Calgary along with many friends Dad had made over the years.
George was born on June 5th, 1949 in Yorkton, Saskatchewan. At an early age, George and his family lived on a farm north of Goodeve, Saskatchewan. He helped out on the farm on a daily basis, learned how to hunt, pick stones and even make moonshine! Eventually, the family moved to a house in Goodeve where his dad took over the day to day operations of the Shell Bulk Station.
George met Elaine Kozey from Hubbard in the late 60‘s who eventually became his wife. Early in their relationship, they decided to move to Regina. Plans made, Elaine moved first and George finished his schooling and then moved to Regina to be with Elaine. For approximately 2 years they lived in Regina, having a son born in this time (Rob). When George’s father passed away, George, Elaine and Rob moved back to Goodeve so that he could take over running the Shell bulk station. During this time, another addition to the family (Kim) was born in Melville.
Eventually, Shell closed the station so George and family moved back to Regina. George’s lifelong passion was cars, vehicles. He would spend hours upon hours fixing and learning himself the mechanics of a vehicle. There were times in Goodeve that he had up to 12 vehicles in their yard that were for sale.
Starting their life in Regina, a second time, George got a job at CN Rail. Not being a job about vehicles, he then moved on to work at The Texaco bulk station on Winnipeg Street. Texaco shut down on Winnipeg Street after a few years so his next job was a salesman at Auto Electric Service on Broad Street. From there he received a job offer from BF Goodrich selling tires, all along having some type of vehicle or vehicles for sale at home.
After working for someone, he decided to take his passion and make a business out of it. In 1983 he started his own trial business at a dealership with him sharing expenses and sharing the yard to sell his own vehicles on Broad Street at Cottonwood Auto Sales. Approximately 3 years later George with support of his wife Elaine purchased a piece of property on Winnipeg Street and built their own building and business there. Ideal Auto Sales Ltd was formed and became a very successful used Auto Dealership for over 30 years. As time progressed he decided to sell the location and was fortunate enough to take another building and shop on trade. So the idea of retiring really wasn’t an idea as he then worked up until 2016 still buying, fixing and selling vehicles from this new location.
George did slow down a bit and had a new passion. They had purchased a cabin on Pasqua Lake so he made many commutes there and back. One commute was not so good as he was on a motorcycle and hit a deer and ended up in the hospital for 8 months. But George kept going and little by little he got better and continued down the path of vehicles.
In August 2016 he had a stroke while showing a client a vehicle so he was taken to the General Hospital for tests and for observation. From 2016 to April 10th, 2022 he was in and out of the hospital dealing with strokes, seizures and also Dementia. Finally on February 7th, 2022 yet another trip to the hospital with what we thought was another stroke but instead we found out that he had 3 rapidly spreading types of cancer. Because of this, he was admitted to Grace Hospice at the William Booth Special Care Home. George was able to fight this disease, diseases, for 30 days. Finally, after all his fight, the fight was over. He succumbed to his cancer and passed away peacefully at 10:25 a.m. on April 10th, 2022.
As George and Elaine’s son, I need to thank my Mom for the countless hours you spent putting Dad first, never ever worrying about yourself, always having that passion that’s inside you Mom to help. You shine Mom.
Upon my Dad’s wishes, no funeral will take place. We will have a small family gathering as Dad will be cremated. I want to thank all the family and friends that have provided support to us all through these tough times. In addition, I want to thank Dr. Baumann for his compassionate care and the comfort he provided to our family, Cliff Geiger the Chaplin at Grace Hospice was always there if we needed him or if Dad wanted to talk. Cliff was definitely a blessing. Finally, I want to thank all the nurses and the ward workers at Grace Hospice. Our family has many thanks for the great care you provided my Dad and Mom’s Husband. As well, the family would like to Kevin Almassy at Alternatives Funeral & Cremation Services for his care in handling the funeral arrangements.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Saskatchewan Heart and Stroke Foundation or the Canadian Cancer Society.
We love you Dad. We will always miss you.
Our most sincere sympathies to the family and friends of George Phillip Dorish April 10th 2022..
Death notice for the town of: Regina, Province: Saskatchewan