John Saksun

John L. SAKSUN

May 3, 1922 - November 1, 2016

In loving memory of John L. Saksun, who passed away peacefully at Sunnybrook Hospital, with his family by his side. He is survived by his wife, Mary, to whom he was married to for over 73 years, brother Emil Petko (Halina) and family, cousin Michael Olah (Marika) and family, children Jane and John (Charlene), and grandchildren Nicholas and Claire.

John was born in the small village of Zalobin, Czechoslovakia. At age 16, shortly before the wartime occupation of the country, he managed to flee to Canada, where he began working as a machinist. Despite his lack of a formal education, through his extreme hard work and perseverance, he was quickly able to complete increasingly higher precision work and soon became focused on the manufacturing of aircraft parts. After gaining standing for delivering on tank radar and de Havilland Mosquito bomber manufacturing contracts in World War II, he was able to incorporate his own company, The Queensway Machine Products Ltd., in 1952. The company has since played a central role in Canadian history, through its manufacturing of the torch for the 1976 Montreal Olympics, involvement with the Avro Arrow and provisions made for the Canadian Armed Forces during wartime.

As most avid Canadian golfers know, John applied his manufacturing expertise to the golf world in the 1970s. He founded Accuform Golf, which designed and manufactured golf clubs, as well as the cylindrical-shaped bunker rakes found at most PGA Tour courses and around the world. At the company's peak, Davis Love III, Joey Sindelar, Gary Koch, Mike Donald, Dan Halldorson, Jim Rutledge and Dick Zokol played Accuform clubs. Using his clubs, John won the Canadian Professional Golf Association Pro-Am Championship in 1979. His family is also proud to note that he, along with his son, were granted Honorary Memberships to the Canadian Golf Tour in 2006. John continued to golf with his grandson until 2015, when he was 93 years old.

John was a religious man, who deeply touched everyone who knew him and lit up every room he set foot in. He demonstrated an uncompromising level of integrity across all aspects of his life and was known as an eternal optimist, frequently recanting the phrases, "it's a beautiful life" and "smile, you'll live much longer". He often reminisced how, within only minutes of meeting his future wife, Mary Beres, he exclaimed to a friend, "that's the girl I'm going to marry". He was subsequently described as "plotting and maneuvering like a war general" in his attempts to pursue her, by his lifelong friends, John and Mary Pado. When retired, he could be found spending his winters in Florida, or travelling elsewhere with his wife and lifelong friends, Peter and Helen Kochuta.

For the last several years, looking ahead and attempting to soothe the inevitable eventual sorrow of his loving family, he often, forcefully exclaimed that given he had already been fortunate enough to have lived for over 90 years, "Sure, a longer life would be nice. But what do you expect? I can't ask for more. And you can't ask for more". Nevertheless, despite his efforts to ease our suffering, our beloved Dzedo will be sorely missed.

Our family would like to express our appreciation for his caregivers, who so graciously assisted his daughter Jane and grandson Nicholas, in taking care of John while in the hospital in 2016.

Friends may call at the Turner & Porter Peel Chapel, 2180 Hurontario St., Mississauga (Hwy. 10, N. of QEW), on Friday, November 4th from 2-4 and 7-9 p.m. Funeral Mass will be held at Sts. Cyril and Methodius Slovak Catholic Church (5255 Thornwood Dr.), Mississauga, on Saturday, November 5, 2016 at 11:30 a.m. Interment at Assumption Cemetery. Online condolences may be made at www.turnerporter.ca