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John House

June,14 1955

January, 28 2023

 

 

It is with great sadness that the family of John Thomas House announce his sudden passing  while on vacation in Florida, at the age of 67.   He will be lovingly remembered by his wife of nearly 40 years, Lise, brothers David, Don ( Stephanie ) and sister Mary Jane and their families, also by numerous friends and former colleagues around the world.  He was predeceased by his parents, brother Robert and sister Margaret.

John grew up in Oshawa, Ontario attending G.L. Roberts C.V.I. and later graduating as a Travel Consultant.  He travelled through Europe to Afghanistan and West Africa and spent some time working in his mother's birthplace, Aberdeen, Scotland.

His love of travel led to his next job as Tour Director for Goway Travel and it was on one of these tours in the Canadian Rockies that he met his future wife, Lise in 1981.

They married two years later and she emigrated from London, England to start their new life together in Banff where John had now started work for Brewster Travel as a driver/guide.

This eventually led to work as a Tour Director for numerous companies, a job he enjoyed as he was able to share his knowledge and love of the Rockies with visitors from around the world.  He and Lise moved for a brief period to P.E.I. where John conducted tours of the Maritimes returning to Banff in September 2014.

He and Lise travelled to some very interesting places including Egypt, Costa Rica, Fiji, Mexico, New Zealand as well as taking their trailer to Arizona and California in the winter on two occasions.  He retired from touring in 2015 to concentrate on his health but continued some local day work.

Retirement allowed him to reconnect with his other passion, music in particular The Blues. He travelled all over the US to attend music festivals and went on many Blues Cruises in the Caribbean and Mediterranean making great friendships along the way.

Sadly, he was about to board another Blues Cruise in Fort Lauderdale with Lise when he unexpectedly collapsed and died.

In addition to music and travel, he enjoyed cooking and gardening and time spent with their three beautiful Labrador Retrievers.  John had an enormous enthusiasm for life, a great sense of humour and was a wonderful storyteller.

He wanted to cram as much into 2023 as possible fearing that time might be running out.

As per his wishes there will be no funeral.

Memorial donations may be made to Shriners Hospitals for Children ( Canada ) or the Bow Valley SPCA.

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