Frank Lukay, who served on council for the 10 years leading up to St. Albert's achievement of city status in 1977, passed away in April at the age of 92.
He was first elected in January of 1968 in a byelection. He defeated the only other candidate, future councillor and future leader of the Alberta Liberal Party Bob Russell, by 152 votes.
During his 10-year tenure as a councillor (or alderman), Lukay served under three different mayors: Richard Fowler in 1968, Ray Gibbon from 1969 to 1974, and Richard Plain from 1974 to 1977.
Lukay, born Frank Lukawitski, grew up on the family homestead near Myrnam, Alta. in the 1930s and '40s before attending the University of Alberta to study engineering. After graduating with a professional engineering designation (P. Eng.) in 1956, Lukay, as well as his wife Louise and their three children, lived in Edmonton, Montreal, Calgary, and Edmonton again before settling in St. Albert in 1962.
His professional expertise and know-how was something he wanted to bring to municipal politics, his daughters Mary-Lou Drachenberg and Pat Cunningham said, as did his former council colleague Garry Wetsch (1974-1977).
“I would often go to Frank and say, ‘give me some history on this, give me some direction,” Wetsch explained. “Whatever the reason he was the guy that I often went to and said, ‘Hey, look before I open my mouth, what do you think.”
“Quite frankly, he served the community well, and he was a good guy.”
Wetsch said the 1974-1977 council term was anything but boring as the council of the day, which featured four first-time politicians including himself, had some major issues to address.
“Those three years were probably as busy and as hectic in the history of St. Albert as anything,” he said. “We were the first council to do a municipal development plan, called the General Plan; number two, we hired somebody to advise on what should the downtown look like; and number three, we tried to slow down growth.”
“Frank was a good stabilizing force.”
Another major decision made by council during the mid-1970s was to rezone some land to make way for a shopping mall. Although council was presented with four proposals, Wetsch explained that council decided to move forward with the proposal that led to what's now St. Albert Centre.
The hecticity of 1974-1977 is not to say that Lukay's first six years on council were an easy ride.
The Gazette's archives, as well as a binder Lukay kept with news clippings from his council days, show that one of the major issues facing council in the early 1970s was that St. Albert's sewage, water, and waste infrastructure was not keeping up with the rapid growth the community was experiencing. The issue wasn't a surprise to Lukay, who commonly found himself to be the sole opposition vote against numerous land re-zonings and residential development agreements as he was arguing for a moratorium on all development until infrastructure capacity was addressed.
“Early in 1972 the Town of St. Albert was in the most enviable position of any community within the Province of Alberta,” Lukay wrote in a Gazette column near the end of 1972. “However, through unwise and illogical legislation, the town has lost much of the favourable ground.”
“Was 1972 a year of good legislation in the Town of St. Albert? For the developer — Yes. For the people of St. Albert — No!”
Lukay's column came shortly after council had approved a $3.75 million borrowing bylaw (at least $25 million in today's cash) to construct a new sewer line and lagoon.
"Dad knew that there was always a better way"
In an interview inside the Braeside home Lukay designed and built, his daughters Mary-Lou Drachenberg and Pat Cunningham said their father, whether it was a council project, an engineering project, or just a general life issue, only ever wanted to do things right the first time.
“He would always be quite adamant about marching to his own drum,” Cunningham said. “He took very controversial positions where it might be the hard way but this is the right way for the town.”
“He would take the higher road and say, ‘No, no, no, we have to do this right the first time;’ or, ‘No, we're not going to just bandage it because maybe it will increase taxes’ or whatever the issue was.”
Despite dedicating much of his time to his council responsibilities between 1968-1977, Lukay simultaneously taught a handful of subjects at the then-brand new Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (N.A.I.T.) and ran his own consultancy business, Lukay Research and Development, which still operates today.
Lukay's “do it right the first time” attitude was maybe most prominent when it came to his professional life as an instructor at N.A.I.T., as Drachenberg recalled a time that she was in her father's office studying one afternoon when a student called and jokingly asked to talk to “mean Frank.”
“He said it in a funny way just because Frank was a tough guy,” Drachenberg said. “He expected you to do your work and do it right because he did it right and he worked hard, so he expected other people to do their best.”
“He wasn't a mean guy as in grumpy and angry, but he just expected you to do your best.”
After doing his best on council and at N.A.I.T., Lukay shifted more of his focus to his business, the St. Albert Catholic Parish, and the Knights of Columbus.
With his business, Lukay earned his pilot licence and bought a four-seater Cessna airplane, which he used to fly to remote communities that had contracted his engineering services.
In 1980 Lukay made a major contribution to the Parish by designing the bell tower that stands to this day. The three bronze bells that ring out from the grounds on St. Vital Avenue are over 130 years old and hail from France. The bells were gifts given to Bishop Vital Grandin by René Alexandre Piron, a canon (clergy member) and the namesake of Perron Street.
Drachenberg and Cunningham said their father had been a devout member of the Knights of Columbus for more than 60 years, and in 1990-1991 he served as his chapter's Grand Knight, a position similar to that of a board or committee chair.
Later in 1991, Lukay and his second wife Virginia moved to Cumberland, B.C., and Lukay returned to municipal politics as he served on the village's council from 2000 to 2002.
In his later years Drachenberg and Cunningham said Lukay stayed more than just active, as he always had building projects on the go, was almost always seen riding his prized Kubota compact tractor, and he was an avid cyclist until this past summer using an electric recumbent bike he designed himself.
Lukay was predeceased by his first wife Louise in 1988; his second wife Virginia in 2016; his brothers Casmir and Walter; as well as his parents John and Mary.
He is survived by his children Drachenberg, Cunningham, and Rick Lukay; four grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. A memorial service took place on April 26.
