W. John Switzer died peacefully, with his family around him, on Friday, April 27th, after a year-long battle with glioblastoma. Please join us at Kingsway-Lambton United Church on Sat., May 5th for a service at 1pm, followed by the Celebration of Life at 2pm.

In John’s own words:
My life has gone through different stages: as a young student, through my career as a teacher, as an accountant, and later as a consultant.
My real growth occurred after my career as consultant, when I retired. I developed a whole array of different activities: member of Governing Council at University of Toronto, Chair of the Research Innovation Commercialization Centre in Mississauga, and wine judge in London, UK for Decanter World Wine Awards, where I met and worked with some of the most committed people in the industry. I had opportunities to teach in the wine industry trade at Wine and Spirits Education Trust (WSET) in Toronto. This part of my life was, for me, the most fulfilling and interesting. As a caring, passionate teacher with a love of fine wine and travel, I was able to enjoy these activities often until the very end when I became ill.
I started my retirement from work early and enjoyed a number of different job opportunities, in each case performing new roles and honing my skills. Once again, the best part of my career was towards the end, where I could help young people to develop their potential while I had the opportunity to share my wisdom with them. The people to whom I gave such opportunities were the best reward for me in my career, and I still see many of these young people as their careers continue to grow.
While I worked on my career, I also provided volunteer advice to other communities: CPA Ontario, the United Church of Canada, and the University of Toronto Mississauga (UTM). It was always a pleasure to have outside involvement in my career.
When I became a Chartered Accountant and did my MBA at the same time, I taught at York University Business School for five years and then began my downtown career as a banker and consultant. These were starting points for the development of my career. One aspect of my career that defined me and became my approach was doing it my way, and I am proud of that.
I have four lovely children of whom I am very proud and including one child, Douglas, who sadly predeceased me. I am so pleased with Graeme (Melanie), Heather (Joseph), and Katie (Paul). Lately, they have been wonderful supports to me as my medical developments occurred, and have shown their support through frequent family dinners, and sharing memories and stories with me. I am so committed to my wife and we have so many very good memories together.
One thing that Barbara and I were able to do, for many years, was travel to many wine and tourist areas, and they have been both interesting and fun. My ability to travel with my wine expertise has been wonderful, as well as the work I have done with the WSET board in London, England. I had annual trips to London to be a wine judge for Decanter World Wine Awards, and Barbara and I have also enjoyed some travels in which she showed me the world in ways I would not have seen on my own. These travels were so wonderful, discovering the world together, including food in France that eventually changed my life. Memorable trips include: Venice, Australia, India, China, Ireland, Scotland, the cross-Canada train, Poland, and New Zealand.
The end of the story: Suddenly, all of my activities came to an end very quickly when I received my diagnosis in 2017. During the year afterward, Barbara has been an amazing support as we went through, together, the challenges we were granted. We worked together and had the opportunity to finish our farmhouse, which was a dream for us.
We have been so blessed with the care I have had the past several months from doctors across various facilities in Toronto. Thank you, especially to Doctors Shultz, Mason, Rowat, and Lozano. My family and I are so grateful to them, and to the medical teams that have assisted with my care.
In lieu of flowers, remembrances may be made to: W. John Switzer Class of 7T0 Award at University of Toronto (student tuition assistance) https://donate.utoronto.ca/ or The Gerry & Nancy Pencer Brain Tumour Centre at Princess Margaret Hospital http://www.thepmcf.ca/Our-Impact/Clinical-Research-Care/Story-List/The-Gerry-amp;-Nancy-Pencer-Brain-Tumour-Centre.