John McIlwraith

McILWRAITH _ John born September 4, 1926, in Glasgow, Scotland, died June 30, 2006 in his home in West Vancouver of Lewy Body Dementia. Raised during WWII on the Island of Arran, and in Glasgow in Scotland, as a boy, John was a bomb spotter. He served a full apprenticeship as a bricklayer and built chimneys in the Rolls Royce factories during the war. Then he turned his charm, intelligence and energy into sales and, when the Suez Crisis made it impossible to find gas to travel, he moved himself, his wife Bridie, and three children to Vancouver, Canada. Later they were joined by a fourth child, the son of his late sister, Janette. John started out in Canada as a stoker on the ferries, a clerk at Woodwards and then returned to sales and had a highly successful career in printing. John became sales manager of Evergreen Press and president of Economy Printers and Mailers. He was active as political campaign manager and writer, working for Bob Bonner and other "Socreds" in British Columbia and the Democrats in Washington State. John became co-owner of La Colombe and helped turn it into Vancouver's finest French restaurant. He became good friends with many of Vancouver's media elite, including Jack Wasserman and Jack Webster, whom he claimed had given him elocution lessons. During the same period John became the owner of Reading Dynamics for Western Canada. A lengthy newspaper strike in the early 70's forced the closure of Reading Dynamics and John suffered serious financial loss. In 1972, after working as a salesman for CKNW, John moved to Seattle and had his own talk show on KTW. There he met Dixie Miner, whom he married in St. Louis, MO in 1976. John wrote a syndicated newspaper column for the Bassett chain of weekly papers in Ontario, freelanced articles for various magazines in the US and eventually became a highly popular commentator on National Public Radio's "All Things Considered" for many years. He and Dixie lived aboard their boat in Seattle and Los Angeles. They returned to Vancouver in 1998. John's genius at storytelling, his love of bad puns, his unfettered intelligence and curiousity were equaled by his capacity for friendship. He was a kind, warm and funny man and a loving father to Gordon (and Cindy), Susan (and Steve Trayler), David (and Amanda) and Fraser (and Ari Woudenberg). His grandchildren, Ryan, Simone, Janna, Fraser, Jesse, Andrew, James, Euan and Lindsay and great-grandchildren, Gracie and Ava will miss him, as will his brother and sister-in-law, Bill and Shirley McIlwraith and sister and brother-in-law, Mary and Tom Stapleton. John's mother, Lily, is still charming all and sundry at age 105 in Sidney, B.C. He leaves a huge hole in our universe and will be forever missed by his family, friends and especially by Dixie. A memorial service for family and close friends will be held at their West Vancouver home, Saturday, July 15th. Please contact David McIlwraith, 604-889-6680, 943 Maskell Rd., Roberts Creek, BC V0N 2W6 for further details.