It is always hard to put into words the memories - many of which are decades old. I think what stands out most is our dad’s love of reading, history, getting outside to learn about new places, and being silly, which characterized much of our childhood. From a young age, we were regularly taken out on “morning junkets”, which was code for our dad hitting the open road with us kids (giving our mom a couple hours of peace), picking a random location between a 2-3 hour drive from Toronto, and exploring the local sites and some tasty treats along the way.

We always used to joke about how our dad adamantly refused to take us on “typical” kid-centered family vacations such as Disney World, SeaWorld, due to ethical concerns about treatment of workers, animals, or the environment. As kids, we would groan, exasperated about another trip to a Canadian historical monument, however upon reflection, we realized how much these decisions and explanations shaped our worldviews. Our dad always encouraged us to seek information, the truth, and be friendly and kind to any person, from any walk of life.

We had many fun memories of weekends spent as a family riding the antique cars and log flume at Centre Island’s ‘Centreville’, hanging out at Ontario Place, or taking a longer trip to Niagara Falls. As we got older, our dad coached our co-ed baseball team where David would be the runner-up MVP despite being the youngest kid in our league division, thanks in part to our Dad's diligent coaching skills and encouragement! Again, memories of our dad’s kind treatment of people from all walks of life permeate memories of this time. Some of our teammates came from single parent households and struggled with money. He would routinely treat our friends to post-game lunch, treats, and a safe ride home.

Rest easy, Dad. You were funny, smart, and thoughtful. Good memories of fun times will live on.

Love,

Sarah & David (Burrell)

John our brother may you forever rest in peace.

We will not forget the wonderful contribution you have made to all our lives. You always had a smile for us when we were together, we valued our quiet conversations and we shared all our stories how little or large, from our past, present and future. We shared a youth and love for our family and we fondly remembered and shared stories of our good family times. Your humour always lightened our days and forgot our troubles how little or large they may have seemed. We shared our thoughts of ordinary living throughout the years and even in Covid times we still managed to have a laugh.

Your kindness was always evident from when you were in high school you went on a special school ski trip to Switzerland, a true opportunity of a lifetime, despite never having skied before. John returned home with lovely gifts of Toblerone chocolates bars and souvenirs for his siblings and parents. John always surprised us with yummy treats, a fun kid at heart. Perhaps this is a result of how he was shown kindness in his youth, from our kind and loving parents Joan and Archie or on different occasions. Two occasions were when he was at camp he received a lovely package of ‘tuck’ from his great Uncle Tom and the other occasion was when he was routinely given a package of ‘Chiclets’ from his uncle Cecil on every family gathering. John always was generous and kind and brought a smile to our faces.

Your skill and love of the English language were evident from my youth. I once had struggled with a poetry assignment and I later requested my brother John’s assistance. I completed the poetry assignment and I was thrilled to have earned an ‘A’.

You often would bring your love of history to life with your engaging discussions and conversations of kings and queens, war and peace. Perhaps you received your love of history from our father Archie who was also keen to partake in discussions of historical events. Often John would persuade me to watch an epic war movie or two and share his history knowledge along the way, perhaps it was not all that bad and I did enjoy it after all.

John often rallied his siblings to play a game or two of cards or play the favourite board game of the times, Scrabble, Risk, or Monopoly, it did not matter all were good fun! We shared many a meal throughout the years in happy and sorrowful times and you always could coax a small smile or laugh to heal our heavy hearts. On our happiest occasions we all sang and danced the night a way to the midnight hours, perhaps listening to Donna Summer sing “Last Dance” or the current pop disco tune of the year. John always managed to get up on the dance floor and shake his booty.

John you were loved by your family and were very proud of your children Sarah and David’s accomplishments. You may have passed too soon, however we will always remember all the love and goodness you brought to our lives.

Dear brother may you rest in peace forever more!

Love

Elaine Maclagan, Anne Scanlan, Ruth Cvar, Andrew Burrell

John was a fixture at our South Wellington Coin Society shows for over 25 years and I looked forward to hosting him at our shows. He was noted for his memory of historical facts, his keen eye, knowledge of numismatics (coins and paper money collecting) and his honesty. He was a great source of the common and the obscure! He had a good memory for what individual collectors were looking for and always a fair man to dicker with. He will be dearly missed by all his friends in the numismatic community.

It is hard to hear about the passing of John. He became a good friend for the last two and half years, with whom I had many long nights talking about life experiences, and he was always full of wisdom and dreams at the Hotel; throughout our conversation, it seemed I had known him all his life. His youth and his travel work experiences.

He had a big plan to move to Eastern Canada for a few years in the coming Summer months,

John may you rest in peace; you will be dearly missed.

I'm very sad to hear of John's passing. I remember meeting him in Kindergarten at Finch Ave. East Public School. We were good friends all through school. One time we both took home double basses from Zion Heights for the weekend. We were jokingly hitchhiking on Cummer Ave. and surprisingly got picked up by a bunch of longhairs in a beat-up van. They turned out to be members of Rush, and they drove us most of the way home. I'll really miss John.

Where to begin, with a guy I've known since we were 6? I have a flood of memories, from tossing pebbles up to his bedroom window to wake him for our paper route, to playing ball hockey and ice hockey, and from many birthday sleepovers, to wrestling over at his house (his Mom wasn't too happy with me for hurting his arm!). John was simply a great guy to grow up with, always game for something fun, with his ready laugh and a healthy dose of opinions. I can't believe he's gone.