Alfredo Calissi and Valentina Bachmann

Valentina and Alfredo

Alfredo Calissi was born in 1931 in Barga, Italy, in the Garfagnana Valley, near Lucca.  He was one of eight children of Ciro Calissi and Ada Rossi. He lived most of his life in Italy, in the neighbouring city of Castelnuovo.  His family were farmers, growing grapes, making wine and raising various farm animals.  Growing up, Alfredo worked with his family, in neighbouring farms and foraged for wild mushrooms in the forest.  

Alfredo moved to Canada in 1951, living the first few years in Fort Frances, Ontario, where he worked as a labourer for the railroad.  At the time, the Canadian railroad network was moving from steam to diesel locomotives and the gauge of the rails needed to be upgraded, to accommodate heavier trains.  The work was hard and the living conditions were difficult.    

Before Alfredo left for Canada, one of his neighbours gave him the address of a relative of theirs, living in Kelowna, BC.  He wrote to that family and they convinced him to move to Kelowna and the beautiful Okanagan Valley.

He found it difficult to find employment in Kelowna, instead working in Kamloops, BC, Port Hardy, BC, and Beaverdell, BC.  In a few years, the development of a new sawmill in Kelowna, landed him a construction job, and later, steady employment in the plywood division as a clipper operator.  

He married Valentina Bachmann in 1955, and sponsored his two brothers, Pietro and Lorenzo Calissi, to come to Kelowna shortly afterwards.  Both Pietro and Lorenzo resided in Kelowna. 

Alfredo and Valentina purchased an apple orchard in East Kelowna in 1962, where they raised three children: Piera, David and James.  Alfredo built a career as an orchardist, growing apples and cherries and shipping his fruit to a cooperative packinghouse.

Alfredo passed away in 2014 and is interred at the St Theresa’s cemetery in Kelowna.
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James Calissi