KYLE, John David 27 March 1930 – 1 November 2023, born Saskatoon, SK, died Victoria BC, peacefully at Mount St. Mary Hospital, where he received compassionate care while stoically enduring his declining state. Pre-deceased by our mother Simone in 1988. Survived by wife Wenda, brother Mick, children David, Suzanne, Lisa and Maxine, Step-daughter Danielle, 7 grandchildren and 3 great-grandchildren. We acknowledge his passing with intense gratitude for his love and whole-hearted embrace of a life well and thoroughly lived.
John’s working life extended over 65 years, continuing to teach at UVic until he was 88, and prior to that at universities across Canada and in the UK. He was a professor of business who enjoyed a legendary reputation amongst students as reflected in his various faculty awards. John was proud of being a teacher, first and foremost. He loved the classroom and relished the mentoring role whereby he touched and changed the lives of three generations of students. He was unique in his extensive business experience outside academia, with MacMillan-Bloedel, CP Air, Eaton’s, Bank of NS, Price Waterhouse, and as founding executive director of the Greater Vancouver Mental Health Service. He was Dean of the BCIT School of Business from 1981-88, a dedicated practitioner of ethical leadership, which he subsequently taught to hundreds of BCom and MBA students.
Flying and the navy were John’s first love and after graduating from Royal Roads he served in the naval reserve for 25 years, retiring as a Cdr. During the 1950s and 60s he was a pilot with VU 922 Squadron, declining the offer of a career in the cockpit at CP Air in his unselfish prioritization of family stability. When flying ended John took up sailing, thus launching his family’s unifying activity through a succession of boats over the decades – wood, fibreglass, aluminum, racing, cruising, sail, power, live-aboard – he did it all until nature finally dropped his sails. He is best remembered with the boat pounding across the Strait of Georgia in a fresh northwesterly, pipe clenched in his teeth, most of us seasick below. Dad pursued other interests over the trajectory of his life including sports cars (guided by the axiom “why buy the best, when you can buy British!”), prize-winning photography, oil painting, and reading, with enduring enthusiasm.
Despite his accomplishments and passions, John was above all a kind, affable and generous man, firm but not ostentatious in his Catholic faith, literally a friend for life, energized by an indefatigable work ethic and intellectual curiosity. He offered his family irrepressible positivity and calmness throughout the storms of our lives, providing stability and unquestioning love as a legacy we strive to live up to.
A funeral mass for John Kyle will be held at 11:00 on Saturday 9 December at Our Lady Queen of Peace Catholic church, 849 Old Esquimalt Road, Victoria BC, with reception to follow in the parish hall. John’s ashes will be subsequently scattered at sea.