Quote:
June 28, 2009 We are profoundly saddened to announce the loss of John, our most beloved husband, father, brother, uncle, and friend. With his family surrounding him, he died peacefully in the ICU of the Foothills Hospital on the evening of June 28, after a short fierce struggle with a recurrence of the cancer that he successfully fought eleven years ago.
Quote:
in 1998 after surviving stage 4 non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. His cancer experience radically altered the direction of his life and for the next eleven years he devoted himself to his family - his wife Meredith (nee McEwan), whom he married in 1971, and their three children, Robert, Matthew, and Anne-Marie - and he turned his intense intelligence, passion, resolution and industry toward the service of the wider community. "Faith, family, friends and fun" became his motto. He mentored friends and associates in the energy business and was a co-founder and director of Wellspring Calgary, a community support centre for people with cancer and their families. The centre, generously built and donated by Carma Developers, had its grand opening on June 11 of this year. John taught informally at Wellspring and was also an active board member and supporter of many other charitable organizations...He and Meredith attended All Saints Anglican Church, Cochrane, where John was a vestry and corporation member and taught financial skills to the youth group. In recent years he helped care for his elderly parents in their final illnesses, and he took especial joy spending time with his children and his nieces and nephews...Having been given the miracle of eleven more years of life after his first cancer diagnosis, he used that gift to care for others and to give unstintingly of his time, his love, and his resources. One of his favourite quotes was George Bernard Shaw's: "I want to be all used up when I die." John did achieve that goal, giving selflessly to all who knew him and to many who did not.
A glimpse of John, to show that there are excellent people gifted to this earth.