In memory of the late John Hannan

John Hannan, beloved husband of 63 years to Marjorie, long-time member and past president of SPOA B.C. (now EFMA B.C.), and one of the narrators in the recent rebranding of SPOA to EFMA, sadly passed away on May 10, 2013. Born March 8, 1919, he was 95. A father to Ju-

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lie, Eric and Tim, and grandfather to Tyler, Robin, Emma and Isabel, “Jack” had a long life with many adventures and happy times. Ops Talk featured an article written by Jack entitled “Anecdotes of SPOA B.C.” in the Spring 2007 edition. Enclosed in memory and tribute is the following excerpt from Jack’s article: In your last issue, Art Vanidour was absolutely right: Jim Thorpe was the granddaddy of this organization. Besides being into this association, I had one other thing in common with Jim: we both had been radio hams. With me, this had grown into a Wireless Operator’s certificate (in those days, “Wireless” meant Morse code at thirty words a minute). It got me a depression-time job in a fish plant on the

west coast of Vancouver Island, later with

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government wireless at Point Grey, then a year at Dease Lake.

The gang up there thought I was nuts, quitting a good job to go to university. In my final year at UBC I remember the dean saying, “Most of you boys will go east, but you will come back.” He was right: after ten years in Montreal I was back, this time working for Don Sutherland at the Vancouver School Board.

When Jim Thorpe came over from Nanaimo with a bee in his bonnet about a school plant group, Don was sold on the idea but he didn’t come to meetings; instead he prodded Ken Warner and me to get involved. We didn’t need any prodding, and with Don’s initial backing, Ken and I enthusiastically participated in the activities of the association on and off for over twenty years, serving at times as members of the executive. Each of us even took a turn as president.

An example of “It doesn’t always go as planned”: In 1971, I was president; my summary of the meeting reads in part: “The conference itself went along like clockwork… I had emphasized that the technical program was the heart of the conference, and our speakers were successful…” But: “The association’s business meeting on the Friday afternoon was a disaster. One member seemed determined to filibuster throughout the meeting and the membership, tired from sitting through three days of lectures, were frustrated. Robert’s “Rules of Order” were abandoned, I railroaded through what I guessed the members wanted, and we all left for a much-needed drink.”

Jack had a great sense of humour and will be remembered in everyone’s hearts and thoughts. b