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Huskies mourn passing of Glen Weller

Former Michigan Tech hockey player, assistant coach and radio broadcaster Glen Weller passed away on May 31, 2025. (Photo provided by Michigan Tech University)

HOUGHTON — Former Michigan Tech hockey player and assistant coach Glen Weller passed away on May 31, 2025. Weller was 86.

Glen made his impact on the Michigan Tech hockey program in multiple ways. He lettered for the Huskies in 1958-59 and returned to Tech to work at the Michigan Tech Fund from 1968-73. During that time, he also served as a radio broadcaster for MTU hockey.

Glen became an assistant hockey coach in 1973 and helped the Huskies to three appearances in the NCAA Championship game over his five years. He later had stints as head coach at Western Michigan and as a professional scout for the NHL’s Montreal Canadiens.

Weller was a member of the Tech Hockey Advisory Council and served time on the Huskies Club Board of Directors. He was inducted into the Michigan Tech Sports Hall of Fame as an individual in 2005 and again with the 1975 NCAA National Championship Team in 2016.

He was born in Milden, Saskatchewan, a small farming town on the vast Canadian prairies. He was raised by his maternal grandparents, George and Jessie Rankin, who came from Scotland to farm. He invented his first job by salvaging a wagon and milk cans to do a “water route.” Before school he filled the cans at the town pump. Neighbors would leave empty jars to be filled and a nickel as payment. Before school and after hockey practice, he would collect the newspaper from an elevated hook where a train would deposit the bundle as it sped past and he would do the town paper route. Glen learned to play hockey on outdoor rinks with Montgomery Ward catalogs as shin pads and frozen “cow pies” for pucks. He helped build the town’s indoor rink after World War II.

Glen attended high school in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, where he lived with the Harvies and the Brecknells, who became lifelong friends/family. In the summer before grade 12, he hitch-hiked to northern Manitoba to work the new pipeline. He lied about his age and skill set to become the crane operator and avoid digging any ditches. He made enough to pay for his entire year of school.

Glen never considered college a possibility. But in 1958 he secured a hockey scholarship to Michigan Tech in Houghton. A local business owner in Saskatoon gave him a hundred dollars, a suitcase, a bus ticket and off he went. There, he met and played for coach John McInnes. His time at Tech would become one of the biggest influences of his life.

While at Tech he met Janet Frenette on a blind date at one of his hockey games. She liked him because he was making the other players laugh. They married on Oct. 1, 1960. Glen earned his bachelor degree in business from Michigan Tech in 1961, they had their first child and moved to Calgary, Alberta, where Weller worked as an advertising manager at the Hudson Bay Company. They had two more children in Calgary and spent the next few years enjoying the Canadian Rockies and being near family.

In 1968 the family moved back to Houghton. There, Glen worked for the Michigan Tech Fund until 1973, when he became an assistant hockey coach at Tech, helping lead the Huskies to three consecutive NCAA championship appearances. He was also a radio broadcaster for MTU hockey, helped to run the summer youth hockey program and remained a lifelong member of the Hockey Advisory Council. He was inducted into the Michigan Tech Sports Hall of Fame on Oct. 22, 2005. The years in Houghton were marked not only by his rise in college hockey but also by his deep connections to the MTU hockey family and community friends. He valued and worked hard to nurture these relationships throughout his life.

In 1978, Weller accepted the head coaching position at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. He loved the community in Kalamazoo, forming deep and lasting friendships with his players and the WMU family. He was extremely proud that all of his players at Western graduated with their degrees. He always said he’d have retired there if it wasn’t for the weather.

Weller retired from coaching in 1982 and moved to Duluth, Minnesota, where he worked in marketing at Service Printers. While in northern Minnesota he was also a professional regional scout for the NHL Montreal Canadians for 15 years. He built a “golf course” in the back yard of their home on Lake Superior, including a rather well appointed putting green. Every summer he and Janet hosted “The Sand Dune Invitational”. The tournament involved a weekend of backyard golf, cheap beer, home cooking and a jacket ceremony. Glen and Janet had an adventurous and happy life together.

In 1999 Janet died after a short battle with cancer. Glen retired in 2001.

Glen continued living in Duluth and was lucky enough to meet Mary Pat Dawson. She owned a horse farm and Glen enjoyed helping with those chores. They moved to Palm Desert, California and were married. Mary Pat was not only his partner but also his devoted and loving caretaker. His last years were marked by illness and she gave him love and quality of life. They enjoyed escaping the desert heat with drives into the mountains and one notable trip to San Diego where they were able to see the ocean and the zoo. He also took great joy and comfort from his constant companion, Rascal, a Maine Coon Cat, who followed him everywhere.

Glen was a golfer, did some bird hunting in Canada and Northern Michigan with his Labrador, Misty Jane, and always had a little workshop going where he enjoyed building and fixing things. He tinkered with his 1931 Model A Ford which served as a second family car for several years. He was famous for his sweet tooth, expert spelling, his honesty, his wit and his recital of the tongue-twisting tale “Johnny Snake”. But what was most important to him was staying connected to his children and the people he loved.

Glen is survived by his wife Mary Pat Dawson of Palm Desert, his son and daughter-in-law Glen and Lynn Ann Weller of Portage, Michigan, his daughter Christine Weller of Brooklyn, New York, and his son Gordon Weller of Duluth, Minnesota. His extended family includes Don and June Brecknell, Ted and Charlotte Brecknell, Bob and Audrey (Brecknell) Deaver, Sylvia Brecknell, Byron and Lori Harvie, Howard Rankin, Ray (d.) and Betty Frenette, Gerard “Fuzzy” and Fran (d.) Frenette, Ray and Claire (Frenette) Kolehmainen, many nieces and nephews and lifelong friend Boyd Denny who still maintains an acreage in Milden.

In memory of Glen please consider a gift to:

The Michigan Tech Fund

Memo: Hockey Enrichment #1065A

Michigan Tech Fund

1400 Townsend Drive

Houghton, MI 49931

Following a private internment in Houghton on Oct. 4, 2025, friends are invited to join the family at the Ambassador Restaurant, 126 Sheldon Avenue in Houghton at 1 p.m. for lunch.

Starting at $3.50/week.

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