William “Bill” Maurice Gillott

William (Bill) Maurice Gillott born May 14, 1929, passed away peacefully on December 3, 2022, at the age of 93. Bill was born and raised in Calgary. In 1956, Bill married the love of his life Muriel Jean Hayden and together they raised five children. He was a role model for his children Pat, Deb, Nancy, Sue and Grant teaching them hard work pays off, dreams come true, you never give up and you should always be humble and kind.

In 1952, he founded West Canadian Microfilm which later became West Canadian Graphic Industries and currently exists as WCD. The company was an industry leader in microfilm. Bill knew that newsprint had a life of about 100 years after which it deteriorated rapidly and became unusable with a loss of all the information. Commonwealth Library a division of West Canadian Microfilm was created to ensure that Canadian history was preserved. Bill and his team microfilmed 30 million pages of newspapers from Victoria, B.C. to St. Johns, Newfoundland from the 49th parallel to the Arctic spanning a time frame from the mid 1800’s to 1978. This important historical archive of 30,000 rolls of microfilm was donated to Google and all the information contained in newsprint from the mid 1800’s will now be preserved forever.

Bill believed in community. He was active in Rotary from 1977 and attended his last meeting on November 22nd, 2022. Bill was President of the Downtown Rotary Club 1991-1992, member of the host committee of Rotary International Convention in Calgary in 1996 and District Governor of Rotary International 2001-2002. Bill was the recipient of the Paul Harris Fellow Award. Bill was a founder of the Calgary Center for the Performing Arts and volunteered with the Calgary Stampede and Exhibition from 1974 – 2009 becoming a Stampede Life Member.

Bill was an avid hockey player, playing junior hockey and then men’s league until the age of 83. When he wasn’t on the ice, he could be found on the golf course. Bill was a lifetime member of the Glencoe Golf and Country Club and through his years of golf celebrated 3 aces.

Bill had a childhood dream of becoming a pilot. On his 40th birthday, on his way to work, he made a detour and went to the Springbank Airport where he embarked on making this lifelong dream a reality. Bill became a licensed pilot and flew a Cessna 340 for over 25 years.

Bill was predeceased by his wife Muriel, granddaughter Alana Keleigh, and son in law David Graham (Pat). He is survived by his loving children, Patricia Graham, Debra Heald (Brian), Nancy Gillott, Susan Merritt (Ian Hudson) and Grant Gillott (Jaye); Grandchildren: Craig Beatty, Jill Ebner, Roger Johnson, Caroline Graham, Taylor Marcus, Pamela Keleigh, Hayden Brown, Lyle Brown, Alissa Schubert, Ashley Merritt, Matt Gillott, Bobby Gillott, Sydney Gillott, Brooklyn Gillott, Cammie Gillott and 11 great grandchildren.

A Celebration of Life will be held on Thursday, December 8th at McInnis and Holloway, 5008 Elbow Drive at 11:00am with a reception to follow. In lieu of flowers you may donate to the Rotary Foundation c/o Calgary Downtown Rotary Club P.O. Box 34040 Westbrook PO Calgary, Alberta T3C 3W2.