John Byron Dale
Engineer, maverick, family man. Born on Nov. 27, 1938, in Orillia, Ont.; died on Aug. 30, 2014, in Toronto, of cancer of the colon and liver, aged 75.
The sound of the front door opening and closing. The click of a briefcase set down on the hall tiles. The slight smell of a cigar. The pounding of children running on the stairs. Every family has its own rhythms, and no matter where we lived, this was ours growing up with John Dale as our father. It was more than a routine; it was his daily transition between his two great passions: his work as an engineer and his commitment to family.
John graduated in 1961 with an applied science degree from the University of Toronto. Metallurgy was his specialty and he travelled the world working for some of the largest mining and metals refining companies. Chile, Japan, Southern Africa, Eastern Bloc countries, Canada's Far North – he visited them all. To his five children, it seemed as if he were always on a global treasure hunt for silver and gold. With ore samples littered throughout our home, what else were we to think?
His lifelong interest in science was rooted in his childhood. When he was 4, his mother, Edna, died unexpectedly. It was 1942 and the Second World War was raging. Later would come the Cold War and the spectre of nuclear conflict. His father, Jack, did his best as a single parent to his only child, but it was in science that John found distraction during those tumultuous times. Meccano sets, simple engines and homemade radios gave him a sense of strength and discipline.
An introvert by nature, his inner focus and sense of self-reliance bred a strong independent steak. As a man, this morphed into full-blown status as a maverick. Whether it was politics, business or social trends, John was never, ever, one to follow the crowd. Sometimes he could go a little too far in bucking authority (especially with officious guards along the Canada-U.S. border). Occasionally irascible, but always loving, he stood on principle and was a towering role model.
Our mother Marie was his rock, his partner in every sense of the word, and the most important person in his life. In the late 1980s, he decided he wanted off the treadmill of work and heavy travel. He started his own consulting firm from his home office. At noon on his first day at home he came downstairs and asked, "What are we having for lunch?" Marie, with characteristic understatement, answered: "You are the one who changed your lifestyle. I am a lady who lunches, and this lady is heading out for lunch at a restaurant." He soon decided that if he were going to work from home, it would probably be best if he did the cooking.
In later years, he continued to work because he enjoyed it, not because he had to. He immersed himself in interests such as Saabs (he loved their design and engineering) and collecting the toy airplanes of his youth. He and Marie travelled frequently and as each of us married and had families of our own, he revelled in his role as grandfather of eight.
In his final months, John was in considerable pain and discomfort. Yet he fought cancer with the same focus and discipline that carried him through his life. Toward the end, surrounded by the noise and mayhem at a large family gathering, I heard him remark to my mother, "I can't believe we created all this." As I said at his funeral: "Well, Dad, you did. Thank you. We love you. And now it's time for you to rest."
Anthony Dale is the eldest of John's five children.