For 11 years, John Parker, often wearing a black leather bomber jacket, arrived each morning at 426 St. Germain Avenue with cheerfulness, a sense of humour and positivity to challenges.
All of these traits of his personality were appreciated by the confreres and lay staff at the Edmonton-Toronto Provincial office when he served as Comptroller from 1996 until 2007 and continued as a board member of the St. John Neumann Foundation for another eight years.
Surrounded by family, John died of the flu at the age of 88 on November 23rd in hospital.
In a circular letter on 2 May 1996, John’s arrival was announced. “John M. Parker, an early retired certified general accountant, with long corporate experience, has been hired on a part-time basis to take over the comptroller role.”
During those years, John’s sound financial acumen, judgement and advice were seen in many issues, including investments, accounting practices, the merger of the Edmonton and Toronto Provinces in 1998, the sale of the property in Spirit River, Alberta, and the revitalization proposals for the St. Patrick’s rectory on 141 McCaul Street. At the assemblies and Chapters, John presented the financial report, noting with a smile: “Ed Kennedy always asked the one question that I was dreading.”
Born in London, England, John emigrated to Canada in 1954 in search of employment opportunities. A trained navigator in the Royal Air Force, he was employed by Spartan Air Services, mapping northern Ontario and Manitoba. Gifted with a forte for numbers and details, he studied at night to achieve an accounting degree and designation as a Certified General Accountant (CGA) in 1964. Rising to the position of senior vice president of AON, a multinational financial services firm, he sat on numerous professional accounting committees and was elected as national president of the Certified General Accountants Association and later as president of the Financial Executives Institute.
Luncheon conversation with John in the refectory at 422 St. Germain Avenue reflected his wide-ranging interests, and was sprinkled with wit and laughter. A splendid raconteur, he related anecdotes about travel, family and everyday living; movie and theatre reviews; world events, politics and political friends. As Father James Mason noted: “When John came to lunch, you knew that he had read The Globe and Mail that morning.”
At John’s celebration of life on December 11th, Fr. Paul Hansen recalled John’s superb culinary skills when he cooked a roast beef dinner for the confreres. After the delicious dinner, a confrere quipped. “We hired him for the wrong job.” Marwan Al-Turk paid tribute to John as his mentor in earning a CGA and later training as the comptroller.
Out of the office, his two passions were his family and aviation. As a private pilot, he loved the feeling of the open skies, especially in his own airplane. At the celebration of life, the “thumbs up” sign, used to signal to the pilot and the control tower for take-off, was appropriately suggested as a toast to John.