John Alexander McNeil passed away on May 19, 2023.
John was born to his proud parents, Evelyn and Alex, in Luanshya, Zambia. He was much loved by his two elder sisters, Jean Hafner and Berna Orton; and admired by his younger brother, William. The siblings grew up on the Copperbelt and remained close. From the age of nine, John was put on a five-day train to boarding school at St. Andrew's College in Grahamstown, South Africa, until the family relocated back to Canada when he was 18.
One of John's proudest achievements was establishing the Queen's rugby program while obtaining his Bachelor of Arts. John served in the UNTD in the summers, mainly at HMCS Cornwallis, and graduated Law School at the University of Toronto in 1966.
John moved to Vancouver and joined CP Air, which provided him many travel opportunities – and began his lifelong love of Hawaii. He obtained his MBA from UBC and joined Wood Gundy as an investment banker in Toronto, and then London, U.K.
While in London, in 1984, John married Susan Anker, and they had two children, Alexander (Verity) and Jennifer (Catherine). Both Susan and John were proud parents and devoted to their children (and generations of chocolate Labradors).
John had a stalwart career with Wood Gundy, Merrill Lynch, Scotiabank and others in Toronto and London. He made the most of living in the U.K.: exploring Europe with his young family, regular nights out at West End musicals, dancing at Annabel's, and of course, lots of tennis.
John had a varied and glittering career, loved his work, and, latterly, would take every opportunity to regale his family with news from the Ontario energy sector, for which he was a consultant. He was very proud to continue the family tradition of never retiring – he said he would “let the market decide” when it was time, but he was still bringing in business when he had a stroke in June 2022.
He always had a pen in his shirt pocket and his daytimer on hand just in case.
John was a gifted athlete enjoying swimming, rugby, squash, tennis and, latterly, platform tennis. He was famous for holding himself to the highest physical standards, never betraying his true age, and gentle trash talk (mostly directed at himself) on the court.
Throughout his life, John maintained strong bonds with a wide circle of university friends, teammates, and colleagues – it was no surprise when he won the Social Butterfly award at the B&R last year.
John loved to travel, particularly to the beach over Christmas; Club Med in the Turks and Caicos and Kapalua in Hawaii were favourites. When John took his children on an extended trip to Southern Africa in December 2019, he put his Afrikaans to good use – calling himself Johannes and making everyone giggle at his once-natural accent. Amongst friends and family, John was always laughing, often at himself. He had a unique and borderline confusing sense of humour to the uninitiated – he and his children had their own private language and way of speaking that was as endearing as it was hilarious.
Despite his challenges, John had a perennially positive outlook, and was a gracious gentleman to the very end. John spent his last days at Amica Bayview Gardens, where he surely set records for his number of daily visitors. John's family thank the many people who visited and cared for him, but, in particular, Linda and Jamila, who have shown John incredible warmth and compassion providing PSW services throughout the last year, and the Temmy Latner and Amica staff who provided him with as much comfort as possible during his struggle with aggressive lymphoma.
John's frugality was legendary – his idea of a treat was a long hot bath, a big glass of chardonnay, and a new pair of corduroy pants every 35 years.
John, Bub, Bwana lived a wonderful life, and will be dearly missed.
