William Brian Johnston

Following a long series of illnesses and other health challenges and most recently an extended stay in hospital, our brave and stalwart father, William Brian Johnston passed peacefully during the evening of September 29, 2015.

Brian was born in 1932 as the eldest child to Gilbert (Gib) & Henrietta (Henri) Johnston and spent an idyllic childhood growing up with his siblings Gilbert (Gil) and Maureen in the piece of western Canadian paradise that is Nelson, BC. Brian showed promise as an achiever from a very early age. He excelled in school and demonstrated real leadership in Sea Cadets as he rose to the rank of Chief Petty Officer at 17 and was chosen to lead a contingent of the most outstanding cadets in BC across Canada by train for their annual national convention that year.

His penchant and talent for leadership at a young age continued when he began his career in Education at 19 by getting a job teaching in Willow River, BC in a one room school offering classes for grades 1 through 12. He and his wife Claire (nee Barnhardt) spent a couple of years carving a life out of the wilderness in the northern part of the province where he had to augment his teaching salary by cutting railroad ties for the CNR. The stress of this challenging beginning was offset somewhat when the young couple was blessed by the birth of their first child David.

Brian rose quickly through the ranks with a series of well-executed and strategic career moves that saw the family grow in numbers and prosperity with the births of his eldest daughter Sharon in Creston, his second daughter Daphne in Castlegar until settling for several years in Jaffray, BC where his fourth and final child Gordon was born. Following this somewhat hectic period of change, Brian and the family found some real stability in the East Kootenays where he was the Principal of both the elementary and high schools in Jaffray along with holding the same position for the school in Elko and another in Sand Creek. From here he kicked his career into high gear by attending university at UBC each summer, serving for 3 years after being elected as President of the BC Teachers Federation and finally earning his Masters Degree from UCLA where he distinguished himself scholastically once again by graduating in the 92nd percentile in Mathematics.

Throughout his career, Brian achieved at the highest levels. In the early 1970s he was appointed at 38 as the youngest School Superintendent ever in British Columbia. His meteoric rise to prominence was fuelled by his unwavering work ethic, his intense attention to detail, his passion for understanding people and making a difference in their lives and his towering intellect; he was indeed the smartest person I've ever known.

Brian began the "second phase" of his life in 1977 when he met and eventually married his second wife Lynne. While continuing to vigorously pursue his career into the mid 1980's he started feeling more and more that he had achieved all he had desired so he turned his attention to his other great passion; world travel. This meant he would take advantage of his very early start in teaching by taking a generous early retirement package. By the late 1980's he was now free to see the world, and see the world he did! He and his new wife Lynne embarked on an aggressive travel schedule taking them to every corner of the planet. By the time they took their last trip a year ago, he had visited 187 countries... a feat few can lay claim to.

In the past few months, Brian was pretty much confined to a hospital bed but was the life of the party at his 83rd birthday celebration held at a private residence in Port Coquitlam in July and he also lived long enough to FaceTime his brand new (and second along with Mackenzie Murray) great-granddaughter Madeline Churchill.

Gone now but not forgotten Brian, you are loved dearly and will be missed often.

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