Henry Eric Melanson

Henry Eric Melanson, known as Hank, was born on June 22, 1937 in Bathurst NB Canada. On February 7, 2025 Hank died peacefully with family and friends at his side not far from his Burnaby home.

His parents moved West with their growing family of five. Hank's father, an engineer, died in a plane crash when Hank was 12 years old. Hank was the second in the family and eldest son. He and his siblings took up many family responsibilities including caring for their Mom and for one another.

Hank is survived by his beloved son Adam, his sisters Ann Paris (Ray) and Mary Ellen Gillan (Bob), as well as by his brothers Mike and Pat (Wendy), who was like a son to him. He also leaves behind his former wives Sharon Gretzinger (m. 1961) and Toni Pieroni (m. 1977) and many close and precious friends who were like family to him. 

As a youngster Hank was a very good basketball player and always played happily on the Vancouver College High School team. He also learned to dance at this time and was first attracted to Sharon when he saw her on the dance floor.

Hank's enduring interest of his adult life was moving vehicles. He raced his precious red Corvette (as did Sharon - which tickled him to no end).  He was completely devoted to people having good, well-cared-for cars, and became known for his business, “Cars by Hank”.  If he helped someone find a car, he would also help them to care for it and would remain on-call for assisting them with its needs. He remained passionate about working with people and their vehicles his entire life.

He also loved boats and built a spectacular racing boat, The Red Baron, in his backyard garage, with his friends, Frank Guise and Alex McDonald.  The boat allowed him to indulge and reveal his considerable skills as a water skier, a pleasure he delighted in sharing with friends and loved ones.

The highlight of his life, the birth of his son Adam, has always brought joy to his heart. He passed his love of boats and cars onto Adam, who worked with him on vehicles from an early age. Adam has therefore become a very skillful man able to fix and build almost anything.

In the 1970’s, Hank became actively engaged in the personal growth movement.  When he turned 50, he and his 2nd wife, Toni, took a year off and travelled to Europe, which became a life changing experience for him.  He returned from that trip, resumed his car business, and also formed a partnership with Larry Gilman, putting on a very powerful personal development program called The Mastery of Self Expression.  Through that and beyond, he experienced another passion, which was to help people change their lives, and he was amazing at it!

In later years, Hank returned to his love of dancing.  As he did everything in life, he went 100%, taking classes, performing, and he developed quite a reputation for his skill on the dance floor. All the women wanted him for a dance partner!

Hank will be remembered long and fondly by many in the large networks within which he lived throughout his life.  He was a man of such honesty, integrity and passion.  He was truly one of a kind and will be sorely missed.

May he rest in peace!

A Celebration of his Life will be scheduled within the next couple of months.