John VAN REES

1939 - 2022

John passed away with family members around him at the St. Catharines General Hospital in the early morning hours of Tuesday October 11, 2022 at the age of 83. John Van Rees was born September 23, 1939 in Djakarta Indonesia and escaped to Australia in 1941, on the second last plane out, before the Japanese invaded. He then moved to San Franscisco, Miami, Curacao (1945), Southampton (1946), and later to the Netherlands until 1952. John's father Richard Philip Arnold van Rees was flying KLM out of Montreal, where the family later settled, and where John lived from 1959 to 1964, when he relocated to Toronto. He moved back to the Netherlands in 1991 to take over his father's business for training commercial pilots to fly and lived there until 1998. He maintained contact with several of these pilots. Returning to Canada, he worked in sales in around Toronto and retired in 2012. He met his wife Jacqueline Dingman on Match.com and moved to Niagara on the Lake. Together they travelled extensively to destinations like China, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Iceland and more. In addition to Jacqueline, John leaves his beloved daughter Kira and his grandchildren Tara, Liam and Ciara Redmond van Rees of Mississauga, as well as Jacqueline's family Jennifer Riemersma, Lisan Dingman-Nagy, Courtney Maguire, grandchildren Amanda Bauz, Alexis Nagy, Brooke Nagy, Mairin Maguire, Corson Maguire and Bryn Maguire and great-grandchildren Evelea Godron, Bennett Godron and Valentina D'Ambrosio. At John's request, cremation has taken place. Arrangements entrusted to the PATTERSON FUNERAL HOME, 6062 Main St. Niagara Falls. Online condolences at pattersonfuneralhome.com