Stan Grad passed away at the Peter Lougheed Hospital due to complications from a lung infection and cardiac arrest on July 29, 2023, at the age of 78 years.
Grad was raised on the outskirts of Calgary where his parents owned a small motel business, the Graddell Motel. He was initially schooled in Calgary, then attended Notre Dame College in Wilcox, Sask. He went on to earn a petroleum technology diploma from SAIT in Calgary, and a bachelor’s degree in petroleum technology in Laramie, Wyoming.
Business excellence, an entrepreneurial spirit and inspiring leadership enabled Grad to create success in two separate sectors — energy and ranching.
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Grad was the president and CEO of Grad & Walker Energy Corporation, which he founded with partner Willard Walker. Grad & Walker Energy was an oil and gas exploration and production company which reached the TSE 300 Index before being sold to Crestar Energy in 1997. He subsequently founded additional oil and gas enterprises and served on the boards of several other energy and service companies.
Grad became involved in the seedstock cattle industry over 40 years ago, as the owner of Soderglen Ranches Ltd., the largest seedstock cattle operation in Canada. He grew the company’s land base to include ranches northwest of Airdrie, southwest of Fort Macleod and southeast of Cardston, Alta.
His litany of awards and honours include:
- 2019 — the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Wyoming for Petroleum Engineering. He was the first Canadian to receive this honour.
- 2015 — Alberta’s Order of Excellence. This is the highest honour the province can bestow on a citizen.
- 2012 — Calgary Business Hall of Fame.
- 1968 — The Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem, after reviving a man rendered unconscious by toxic gases near Olds, Alberta.
Our condolences to all the loved ones of Stan Grad.
