On October 9, 2025, surrounded by family at home Ahmed Shazly lost his battle to cancer at the age of 77 years young. Left to mourn are his wife of 49 years Valerie, his son Neill (Jen and Lilly), brothers Ibrahim (Wafaa) and Amr.
Ahmed was born in Alexandria, Egypt on January 5, 1948, where he began his journey as a young man to explore life. After receiving his civil engineering degree and working for a short time in Egypt, he began to seek a new opportunity in career and life by immigrating to Canada in 1973. He arrived in Calgary joining his special university friends. It is here where he met his future wife Valerie. In 1976 they got married and had two sons, Neill and Jason. Ahmed was a devoted husband and father and his family were always his priority. His life was a blessing to them and his memory will be a treasure forever.
Employment opportunities took him to Edmonton in 1975 where he also obtained his Masters Degree in Civil Engineering from U. A. For the next 50 plus years, he pursued in his profession and put his heart and mind into it. He always had a solution for any problem and was often called by his colleagues as an engineer with an “out of the box engineering mind”.
In parallel with his engineering career, he developed his love for woodworking at a young age and continued all through his life till he achieved building his dream summer family house on Savary Island. He spent his retired years creating in his workshop while listening to his favourite Egyptian artist Umm Kulthum. This brought him peace, calmness, and always a big smile of satisfaction on his face. He especially enjoyed sitting on the deck in Victoria or at the cottage participating in a discussion of history, politics, nature or just simply reminiscing. Ahmed led his career and personal life standing to his principals and always tried to help anyone he could.
Ahmed was predeceased by his son Jason, sister Soraya, brother-in-law Mohamed, mother Attiat El Sayed and father Mohamed El Shazly and his four legged companions Cosmo and Dante.
The family would like to thank Victoria Home and Community medical team for their warm and responsive support during this difficult time.
At Ahmed’s request there will be no funeral. He was deeply grateful for the love and shared memories he received from his family and friends from all parts of the world in the last few months.
Michael and I would like to extend our condolences to the whole family . We will miss Ahmed. Late in life we became friends and were lucky enough
to share our mutual love for sea food and partake in extraordinary conversations about world affairs .
We wish we had had more time to enjoy together the good things in life.
I miss you deeply man. Fifty years is a lifetime. Through it all you have been there for me over the years in every way. You were a fighter Iike no other, an artist with a piece of wood like no other and an engineer who completed massive projects in four different countries and so many environments. You were my friend.
Ahmed and I had been close friends since 1968. This is, by any measure, a lifetime. We had a connection that transcended space and time. Our love for each other knew no boundaries.
His sharp mind and sense of humor were always on. Even when he was in supreme pain, he was able to radiate happiness with his joyful soul and razor sharp humor.
Ahmed was younger than me. It is dreadful that I ended up losing him so soon. It makes my heart ache.
He was my intelligent, kind, gentle, considerate, clever, witty, generous, sincere, reliable buddy.
I am lucky and honored to have known Ahmed Shazly. Men like him don’t happen often in one’s life.
I still see his smile in my mind’s eyes and feel his beautiful soul touching my heart. It keeps me going when I wake up everyday knowing he’s gone.
Rest in peace my beloved friend.
Your brother, Makhlouf.
It is January now and Ahmed passed away in October, but I am still coming to grips with the fact that he is gone.
Ahmed and I were initially engineering colleagues at H. A. Simons in Vancouver and first worked together in 1990 on a large pulp mill expansion. At the beginning, we had different concepts for some of the structures, but we soon realized that we did, in fact, think much alike and could blend the best of our ideas. From that point on, we became really good friends, and although our work and lives sometimes took us in different directions we remained steadfast friends and kept in contact as much as possible. For me, Ahmed was one of those special friends with whom you could instantly pick up, regardless where you left off, with no need for explanations, and no matter how long it had been since last seeing him. After retirement, it was always such a pleasure for Victoria and I to meet up with Ahmed & Val, whenever we were on Vancouver Island.
Ahmed, you were true friend and gentleman and we will sorely miss your chuckle and great sense of humour. Rest easy, dear friend.
Bill Alcock