John Octavius Goyo

John was the devoted husband of Debbie Berg, who predeceased him in May 2026 after sharing 51 years of marriage.

Mathematics was a very important part of John’s life. His academic career at the University of Toronto included doctoral research in mathematics under the supervision of Stephen Halperin, graduating in 1989 with a PhD in Mathematics.

John’s professional life included work at Certicom and BlackBerry, where he contributed to cryptography and secure communications. John joined Certicom (then Cryptech) in 1990 as one the first members of technical staff and stayed with the company through its acquisition by Blackberry until his retirement in 2020. Over the course of his career, he was listed as co-inventor on more than 20 patents and contributed to the development of several standards in the cryptographic community.

Beyond his professional achievements, John will be remembered for his love of history and language, his fondness for antique computers and his efforts to preserve and promote the Modula-2 programming language. During his post retirement years, he kept busy on their farm and with his varied interests. John and Debbie spent endless hours working together on improvements to and maintenance of their farm in Erin.

John will be deeply missed by his friends and colleagues.