Finlayson, John Alexander
August 20, 1931 ~ September 17, 2009
Jack to his friends, family and acquaintances, “Jackie” to his family from the “Old Country”, and John to his oldest and dearest friends fell asleep and passed away peacefully surrounded by his family and lifelong friend.
Jack is survived by his love of 51 years, Merceda, daughter Kim (Mark) of Courtenay, Gina (Allan) of Prince Rupert, grandchildren Mike, Kyla, Jaclyn, Dayna and David, brothers Jim (Winnipeg), Gordon (Richmond), sisters Cathy (Prince Rupert) and Jean (Dave) of Nanaimo.
Jack was born and raised in Prince Rupert. His parents David and Jamesina Finlayson settled there in 1910, the year the city was founded. It was in 1956, while studying in Vancouver; he went on a ‘blind date” with several friends from Rupert and met Merceda. They were married in 1958 and returned to Prince Rupert were they raised their family.
His many careers included boiler man for the CNR, steam engineer apprentice for the Canadian Fishing Company, Miller Bay Hospital, P.R. Fishermans Co-op, B.C. Packers and Canadian Cellelose. He was Chief Engineer with Northern BC Power. He then went into business for himself as a Refrigeration Mechanic and his final career was a Marine Mechanic for his company Fairview Marine, from which he retired only several years ago. He loved the sea and had many interim jobs on various fishing boats as a deck hand, cook, and engineer, including several of his own fishing boats. Jack’s last boat the “Seacott” was named after his family home in Cromarty, Scotland.
In 1979, Jack and Merceda moved to Victoria. After a few lean years fishing he returned to “fixing” other people’s boats again. Jack could often be found in Canoe Cove or in Sidney at the government wharf. He always had a smile, a story and an “ear”. He had time for everyone and never had a bad word to say. He especially had time in his shop, where he loved to “tinker”, getting broken motors, compressors and the like working again.
Jack and Merceda retired to Courtenay in September of 2008.
A Celebration of Life will be held, in Courtenay, on Friday, September 25, 2009 at 1:00 pm at Comox Valley Funeral Home, 1101 Ryan Rd.
In lieu of flowers donations to the BC Cancer Society or a charity of your choice would be appreciated.