Obituary of John Lewis Knox

JOHN LEWIS KNOX 1918-2006 Canadian Meteorological Service Atmospheric Environment Service 1941 - 1975 At Toronto, on May 14, 2006, leaving Mary Hardy (Martin) Knox, his wife of 57 years; children Paul (Lesley Krueger), Roger and Sheila (Jim Cobban); grandsons Gabe Knox, Peter Cobban and David Cobban, all of Toronto; sister Peggie (Mrs. Philip Lee) and nieces Robin Lee, Mandy Lee (Greg Patton) and Liz Aldwinckle (John) of Calgary; niece Tamara Knox of Vancouver; sister-in-law Alice Sharpe (Charles) of Lakefield, Ont., niece Jennifer Flatman (Mark) of Haliburton, Ont., nephew Peter Dance (Susan Monk) of Orillia, Ont.; 10 great-nieces and great-nephews; first cousins Lewis Kelley of Deal, Kent, and Philip Kelley of London, England; and cousins in Northern Ireland, Jersey and Australia. Predeceased by his brother David of Vancouver. Shaped like so many others by the wars of the 20th century, John�s life was marked by a passion for science, the public service and family activities. His father, Robert Knox (b. near Irvinestown, Co. Fermanagh, Ireland) emigrated to Canada in 1907 and was commissioned as a major in the Canadian Army in 1914. He met Vera Marks (b. Leicester, England) in London while on medical leave after service in France. Invalided back to Canada, Robert was joined by Vera in Halifax, where they were married in 1917 and where John, the first of their three children, was born on July 28 of the following year. The family arrived in Toronto after sojourns in Saint John, N.B., and Montreal, but owing to Robert�s health problems, Vera and the children then spent three years with relatives in St. Helier, Jersey, Channel Islands. They returned in 1929 to Toronto, where John attended the Normal Model School and Jarvis Collegiate. The summers spent on the beaches and tennis courts of Ward�s Island were among the happiest times of his adolescence. John graduated from the University of Toronto in 1939 with an honours BA in mathematics and physics. He worked for the Excelsior Life Insurance Co. but in 1941 seized the opportunity to apply his skills to the war effort, signing up for training as a meteorologist. Posted to Gasp�, Goose Bay and Gander, he served with a corps of forecasters and technicians that provided invaluable guidance to trans-Atlantic flight crews. Several became leaders of Canada�s meteorological service in the post-war years. In 1947, John returned to Toronto to join the forecasting staff at Malton (now Pearson International) airport. He completed his MA degree from U of T and also frequented the Bloor Street headquarters of the service. There he met Mary, who had been working as a meteorological technician since university graduation in 1944. They were married in 1948 and moved to Etobicoke, then a rapidly growing suburb. John�s professional achievements included his analysis of the transformation of Hurricane Hazel, which struck the Toronto region with deadly force on Oct. 15, 1954. He was part of the forecast team on duty at the time and later published scientific papers on the subject. He became chief forecaster at Malton and, after the death of his friend and colleague Fred Turnbull, acting director of the Ontario region of the Canadian Meteorological Service (later AES). John appeared on CBC television as a weather analyst and was well known to listeners of radio station CFRB for his daily afternoon weather updates. Cherished memories of his Ashbourne Drive years include the backyard ice rink he kept carefully maintained and available to the neighbourhood, and summer holidays at Sandy Lake in the Kawarthas with sister-in-law Alice and her family. John moved with his family to Vancouver in 1965 after being named director of the meteorological service�s Pacific region. He relished not only the administrative challenge but also the chance to become familiar with weather patterns on the Pacific Coast. Always a keen student of meteorological science, he took early retirement in 1975 and embarked on graduate studies at the University of British Columbia, where he obtained a PhD in 1981. He was a pioneer in using computer analysis to re-interpret decades of observed weather data. His thesis on atmospheric blocking sought to employ these techniques to explain anomalies in the development of weather systems in the Northern Hemisphere. John�s awareness of the value of observations taken by human beings led him to champion the cause - ultimately unsuccessful - of saving Ocean Station Papa off the Pacific Coast and the weather ships that kept it running. Armed with his doctorate, John spent several years as a consulting meteorologist for clients including AES and the U.S. Geological Survey, working on problems such as Arctic temperature variability and drought cycles in the Red River basin. His papers and reviews were published in scientific journals and he contributed to the work of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. He was a longtime member of the American Meteorological Society and the Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society. He received the Andrew Thomson prize in applied meteorology in 1982 for his doctoral thesis, and in 1983 was awarded the Patterson Medal for distinguished service to meteorology in Canada. A lifelong sports enthusiast, John played intramural hockey and squash in university and also enjoyed tennis, racquetball and cycling. With their children grown and flown, John and Mary returned to Toronto in 1982 and spent many happy days in their garden on Deloraine Avenue, where John paid particular attention to his spectacular dahlias. Retirement was enriched by travel, including visits to Jersey and his father�s birthplace in Fermanagh, as well as a fascination with computer games and the enjoyment of watching his grandchildren flourish. The frustration of failing faculties was eased greatly by caregiver Ron Andrada and the staff of Fourth Floor East, Isabel & Arthur Meighen Manor, to whom John�s family is deeply grateful for their kindness and support. We look forward to greeting John�s friends and acquaintances on Saturday, May 27, 2006, at the Humphrey Funeral Home - A.W. Miles Chapel, 1403 Bayview Avenue, Toronto, (416) 487-4523. Visitation from 2-3 p.m., memorial tribute from 3-4 p.m., followed by a reception. In lieu of flowers we would greatly appreciate support for a fund in John�s memory to assist students in atmospheric science at UBC. Donations may be sent to the John Knox Memorial Fund, c/o Michelle Messinger-Orr, UBC Development Office, 500-5950 University Blvd., Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z3. So long John - we wish you sunny skies, fair winds and safe landings. We miss you already!