Andrew (Andy) Calder

For memorial service details on sat 27 February, 7pm Melbourne time, please see events page. 

Farewell Andy. Beloved husband, father, sibling, relative and friend. What a wonderful life you led. Full of family, friendships and enjoyment and appreciation of the world we live in.Your love, enjoyment and support of family and friends was ever present.

You taught us to enjoy every day and did so both in Australia and more recently in Finland.

You enjoyed every sport activity you could. In your early years cricket and Aussie rules football were passions and being ambidextrous helped keep everyone on their toes. As well as playing you always gave back to the local community including being president of the Southport Football club back in 1975 and helping in every district you played.

Once you had a family and for the rest of your life, orienteering was a passion - participating, organising (From local events to National championships) and managing junior and senior world championship teams.

You loved to run. Further and further. While living in Canberra what started as training for a marathon ended up with running 115km for fun when you went Kiandra to Thredbo. Or the Cradle Mountain to Lake St Clair walk in one day.

When you couldn't run you continued to hike, from multi week adventures across the Alps to around the local forests. You also were the first to throw your support behind any adventure or idea your friends and family had planned.

You enjoyed walking in the forest, swimming, gardening, cooking, making jam by the kilo, bird watching, stamp collecting and attending concerts but most of all you liked to celebrate with friends and family. Many an hour were dedicated to the making of birthday cakes.

You grew up on farms in country Victoria, second eldest of 6 wonderful kids with cousins and family in spades.

You went to university at Monash Melbourne where you met both lifelong friends and your first wife, Val.

Two beautiful children, Julie and David were born while working on the Gold Coast before moving to Canberra and working for the government.

In the 80s you returned to your farming past by buying "Delboux" a farm near Finley around the corner from brother Chris. You started breeding your beloved Red Limousin cattle, the last of which you kept till the very end of your life.

When you unexpectedly met a beautiful Finn, Anneli Calder while travelling to an orienteering event in Italy in 1991, your life changed paths with more frequent trips to Finland and eventually a life there. Tricky as it was to be so far away from family and friends, you made some wonderful new friends and kept in contact with so many life long friends, many who came to visit.

You were quick to connect to people and loved to laugh. You particularly liked to tell a 'Dad' joke. Even when very ill and in hospital. Nothing can stop a good Dad joke.

You appreciated your life every day. Every night you would say 'Thankyou for today. Today was a good day.' In your own words:

“It is time to be thankful for what we have, and to enjoy today, for who knows what tomorrow will bring. To focus on what we can do, enjoy and smile. And not to forget family and friends, no longer with us. Importantly, to be present, and hopefully with good health, because life is wonderful.”

We wish you were still here but I’m so glad you found so much joy in the 73 years you had on earth and you were able to die peacefully yesterday surrounded by people you loved after fighting bravely this last year against leukemia. You will be in our hearts forever. ❤️