The founder of Canada’s best boot company, Clement F. Gerwing, died at the Rockyview Hospital on Tuesday at the age of 94.

Gerwing was born in Saskatchewan and grew up on the family farm.

He was a SpitFire pilot for the Royal Canadian Air Force during the Second World War and returned to Saskatchewan in 1945 where he married and started a family.

Gerwing moved his family to Calgary in 1963 and bought a wholesale footwear company in 1968 and sold Quebec, Mexican and American made boots.

In 1978, he decided to incorporate Alberta’s western heritage into his boots and began making hand-made boots under the new Alberta Boot Company banner.

Gerwing has run the company, together with his son Tim, for the last 37 years and has built the company into a regular shopping experience for some of world’s most famous rural and urban cowboys and cowgirls.

He is survived by his wife of 67 years, Hedy, six children and numerous grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Friends are invited to a service at St. Gerard's Catholic Church (8944 Elbow Drive S.W.) on Sunday, March 16, 2014 at 7:00 p.m.