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| JIM AND DORIS LONDON WITH THEIR BROOD. |
By Dick Wright
Jim London was destined for big things in life. The only trouble was that nobody in his hometown of Dresden, Ontario, recognized that fact. Certainly not his parents, not his school teachers and not the town's chief constable. It would take a move to British Columbia and almost 20 years for Jim to prove them all wrong.Born in 1935, Jim was the second of four sons in a North Dresden home with parents of humble means. A handsome, athletic lad with closely cropped blond hair, Jim was always a fighter in more ways than just one. He had no fear and was adequately equipped to handle himself in a scrap or when facing the rigours of life. In his teens, he was a prototypical rebel without a cause. He often found himself in trouble and, in spite of an extremely high IQ, he dropped out of high school without finishing Grade 10. He seemed to be bored with school work and wanted to escape the confines of a classroom. It was as if he couldn't wait to begin the rest of his life, whatever form it would take and wherever it would take him.
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| James B. London |
Sports, hockey and baseball in particular, were an outlet for Jim's high octane persona. He was a member of the Dresden Legionnaire baseball team that won the Ontario Juvenile "C' championship in 1953 and he was a fast-skating forward on the first-ever Dresden Lumberkings senior hockey team when he was only 19. He was in his element when competing and burning his abundance of pent up energy.
His Baptist mother, Mary, bemoaned the fact that Jim was not like her other sons and arguments often ensued. Jim just had too may questions and looked for too many answers. He was reluctant to accept the status quo in his young life. Unable to see eye-to-eye with his parents, Jim moved in with his uncle John (Jack) London for a few years. His uncle understood him and there was mutual respect...Jim was even known to listened to his uncle from time to time and that in itself was a breakthrough.
One of his first jobs after quitting high school was at the Sugar Beet Factory in nearby Wallaceburg. I recall him telling me that he was making $88.00 a week, a far cry from the $22.00 I was making working in a clothing store in Dresden. He bought a car with his first month's pay and when he was not playing hockey and baseball he was going out with girls and drinking bootlegged beer with his lifetime buddy Bob "Hook" Davis. For the most part, Jim sowed his wild oats fast, furious and early.
JIM DEMONSTRATED EARLY RESPECT FOR LIFE
One summer, I think that it was in 1955, I accompanied Jim and Bob to Rondeau Park where a group of girls from Dresden and Wallaceburg were vacationing and it was not long before three or four of them were packed into Jim's '47 Chevy. As we cruised the park's narrow roads, a rabbit ran out in front of us and Jim screeched to a halt, allowing the rabbit to scamper into the ditch. The girl sitting in the front seat with Jim, exclaimed: "I'm so proud of you Jim. Do you have any idea of how many would have run right over that rabbit?"
"I respect life," was Jim's droll reply..."Even if it is an animal."
Jim had a way of surprising you with bursts of wisdom well beyond his years. What he said that night gave me a peek into his real character and the inner workings of a mind that would ultimately exceed all expectations. I have never forgotten it. There was definitely more to the guy than met the eye.
Another telling incident comes to mind. Jim would arrive at baseball practices straight from work and the first thing he would do was remove his heavy safety boots. But he did not put on baseball spikes like the rest of us...He would instead take the playing field with nothing on his feet but his socks. I can still see him patrolling the outfield grass and running at top speed to catch a fly balls. "I am so light on my feet after wearing those boots all day," he would say. "I can run much faster...and I feel as free as the wind."
I honestly think that down deep Jim craved the freedom to run free from all the things that had held him back in his young life. Once he escaped the negativity that defined his boyhood, he did indeed run free. And he never stopped running -- from one challenge to another and one new experience to another -- for the rest of his life. In the end, he had totally re-defined himself and was a remarkable man of his own making.
In 1956 Jim got together with Homer Smith and Jim Bresett, two Dresden youths equally at loose ends vocationally. Together they concocted a plan and answered the call "Go West young men, Go West..." with Victoria, B.C. as their ultimate destination. For Jim, it was an opportunity to start a new life and to escape a negative environment where the words "you'll never amount to anything" continued to ring disturbingly in his ears. For Homer, it was the prospect of a new job and joining two older brothers who had already settled in B.C. For Jim Bresett
A MODEST START TO THE REST OF HIS LIFE
Jobs were scarce when they arrived in Victoria but the trio was successful in finding work with a new pulp mill in Duncan, about half-way between Victoria and Nanaimo on Vancouver Island. Jim would eventually leave "Canada's smallest city" with its largely First Nations population and find his way back to Victoria where he went to work for a hardware store. He was still working in the hardware store in 1959 when he met a student nurse, Doris Cail, who was in her last year of training. Rumour has it that the pair belonged to the same judo club in Victoria and the course Jim's life would be drastically altered, never to be the same again.
Doris was born in Victoria, but spent her teens up-island in rural Courtenay. As fate would have it, she returned to Victoria for basic nurses training at St. Joseph's Hospital and attended the University of British Columbia in 1960, the first year of marriage to Jim. She worked in public health for a number of years thereafter, with short maternity breaks until the family accompanied Jim on a one-year teaching exchange in Australia (1975-'76). On their return to Canada in 1976, Doris resumed nursing until she retired in 2000.
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As an aside, Homer accompanied Jim back to Victoria but eventually returned to Langley where he landed a job in the lumber transportation business. Homer remained in Langley with wife Sally until retirement. When Homer and Sally married in 1957, Jim was their best man. Jim Bresett, meantime, would eventually marry childhood sweetheart Janet and move to the Yukon where he began a new career in construction. He now lives in Surrey, B.C.
Bob Peters was another Dresden friend strongly influenced by Jim who wrote him a letter in June of 1957 extolling the virtues of life in B.C. "I quit my promising job in Hamilton and joined them in July of that year," says Bob some 58 years later. Bob, of course, would go on to have an extremely successful career in the automotive business in Burnaby. He, likewise, would marry a local girl (Margaret).
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Jim and Doris were married just about the time that the hardware store went out of business. Realizing that a Grade 10 education was never going to get him very far, Jim took a high school correspondence course, earning his Grade 12 diploma in one year and being hopelessly bitten by the higher education bug.
"Jim always wanted to teach," said Doris in a recent telephone interview. "He was very smart and had an aptitude for it. He had such exceptional energy for life and wanted to improve himself by continuing his education and I encouraged it." With the support of his nursing wife, Jim enrolled at the University of Victoria and took a full-time job working in an Eaton's sporting goods department in off-school hours for several years. Extremely active on campus in various capacities, Jim was an elected member of the student's council and served as the student director from an office in the Student Union Building. After graduation, he was appointed alumnae representative on the university's board of directors.
Not satisfied with earning a mere Bachelor of Arts degree in 1967 and a B.Ed, he eventually completed his M.A.and went on to attain a PhD. from the University of Seattle.
According to Doris, Jim spent three summers in Seattle and traveled once a month in fall, winter and spring to Seattle from Clearwater in order to complete his doctorate. "I am not sure of the exact mileage, but it was six hours to Vancouver and then another two to Seattle in good driving conditions," she added. "Often in winter there were icy mountain roads and snow storms to cope with. Jim was told at the outset of his course work that the only acceptable excuse for being absent was death--HIS OWN!" Indeed, he never missed a class, an assignment or a day's work at his school in Clearwater.
HE SERVED 23 YEARS AS A TEACHER AND PRINCIPAL
Dr. Jim London's passion for education was first realized as a junior high school teacher in Langford before being named Vice-Principal and Principal for high schools in Fort Nelson and Clearwater. When he eventually left the public school system after 10 years as principal in Clearwater, he continued to serve academia by teaching at Malaspina College and the University of Victoria. In 1990, he established the education program for training teachers at Malaspina in Nanaimo. He finished his career at Uvic as a "teacher of teachers", as Doris puts it.
After retirement Jim was elected to the Sooke District School Board where he served a chairman. He also led a Group Study Exchange to Nigeria and took part in another Rotary Club exchange to England.
Doris explained that Jim had a special empathy for children from families of little means and students like him who had trouble adapting to the school regimen. "He knew from first-hand experience how difficult it was for them."
One of his major literary accomplishments was in the form of a book "Public Education, Public Pride": The centennial history of the British Columbia School Trustees Association. A massive undertaking, the publication tracked the history of the oldest trustee association in Canada from its first meeting of one female and 19 male trustees in the Vancouver School Board offices in 1905 to present day. The thoughtful work was an essential guide to the evolution of public education in the province, with a focus on school trustees' role in that history.
Jim's love of teaching was also expressed through countless coaching and management positions for numerous sports teams in which he and his sons Dan, Dave and Tony participated. He even organized a hockey exchange to Finland, Sweden and Russia when two of his sons were playing at the Midget level. He was no sideline spectator -- he had to be involved. Judo was one of Jim's special interests. He was a founding member of the Victoria Judo Club and, as holder of the coveted "Black Belt", was a highly regarded competitor at the national level. He also organized the first high school judo club in the province of British Columbia while teaching at Elizabeth Fisher Junior High School.
Indicative of the degree of his involvement was the fact that he was an active scuba diver and almost unbelievably, he skied in the B.C. Senior Winter Games prompting me to ask Doris if her husband ever found time to sleep. "That was just him," laughed Doris, "so much energy and enthusiasm for life...If the truth was known, I think he may have been a bit ADHD."
JIM THE POLITICIAN: MAYOR OF LANFORD, B.C.
His unparalleled dedication to community manifested itself in a variety of ways. Surprisingly, he was the first elected mayor of the newly amalgamated City of Langford, a region of 29,228 residents on southern Vancouver Island. Langford is considered one of Greater Victoria's Western Communities and is the urban core of the West Shore. He was the founding president of the Juan de Fuca Kinsman Club, President of the Rotary Club of Colwood and recipient of the Paul Harris Fellowship Award (the highest honour afforded Rotarians).
Historian, former teacher, lawyer and long-serving Juan de Fuca Kinsmen Club member Ken Warren recalls with fondness attending Kinsmen conventions with Jim and Doris and playing hockey with Jim in a midnight teachers league. He also marvels at how Jim found time to be "president of five different associations and societies in one year."
Doris also revealed that her husband's sense of adventure was legendary amongst those who knew him, from diving Australia's Great Barrier Reef (a far cry from diving off the Sydenham River bridge in his Dresden days) to circumventing Vancouver Island and surviving a severe 48-hour storm in his beloved 26-foot sloop "Epiphany". In retirement, he liked nothing better than touring the countryside on his motorcycle. "He always had to have challenges and things that he was working on," said Doris, "including bungee jumping on his 65th birthday -- which he did."
He maintained his interest in writing by producing articles and columns for local newspapers and established "Classic Memories", a business that was an extension of his great fascination for history and people. He was fond of saying how assisting people with getting their personal histories and memoirs on the printed page was even more enjoyable for him than it was for his clients. He derived satisfaction in recording the rich tapestry of people's lives and in Doris' words, "was always on the lookout for new people to meet and exciting places to see." He even produced and sold a script for a television show during his stay in Australia.
Jim's personality and characteristics are generously dispersed between his three sons. The youngest, Tony, works with the International Commission for Missing Persons in far away Sarajevo where he holds dual citizenship so that he can fulfill his position as a player-coach with the B & H (Bosnia and Herzogovina) National Hockey Team that is a member of the highly competitive International Ice Hockey Federation. Tony married a local Sarajevo girl and has a daughter and five-month old son.
Son David is a Warrant Officer in the Canadian Armed Forces. He and his family (wife and two sons) spent four years in Sri Lanka where he was in charge of security at the Canadian embassy before being transferred back to Victoria where he is currently stationed. He has also served in Gernmany, Croatia/Bosnia and Afghanastan. Dan is involved in the surgical equipment sales business and lives in Ladner, B.C. where he shares custody of a son. I met Dan in 2003 when he accompanied his father to Dresden where Jim was being inducted into the Sports Hall of Fame along with team mates from the previously-mentioned 1953 all-Ontario championship juvenile baseball team.
Sadly, Jim succumbed to the ravages of leukemia on Sunday, January 13, 2008. He was 73 years of age. When it was learned that Jim had a limited amount of time to live, Bob (Peters) spent a few days with him at his home in Victoria in 2007. "We had a real good visit," stated Bob, "but I wish we could have had more time together. He was such an interesting guy and he was always very good to me."
Bob, Homer Smith and Jim Bresett attended their old friend's memorial service at the Gordon United Church in Langford where Jim had been a member. Bob recalls that it was a "packed house, complete with full choir and impressive, heartfelt eulogies."
Doris said that Jim's mother never did comment on how she felt about his achievements. She was proud of all her son’s. While she did not understand why Jim was not like her other three sons, she had considerable influence on him in terms of his social conscience, his sense of fairness, honesty and work ethic. He remained a Christian throughout his adult life, being an active member of the United Church. Doris said that Jim often quoted one of his mother's sayings: 'Right is right, and wrong is no man’s right'. "He lived by that tenant and always had a strong sense of justice. It made him a good principal who was very popular with is students," Doris went on to say.
"Even after he was dead, I had student’s tell me about the impact he had on their lives." she added. "Growing up in Dresden, with many Black friends, enabled him to quickly deal with racial tensions that were present between East Indian students and others in that community when he first became a principal. For 10 years, there was no signs of racism in his school. Jim sometimes recalled, as a teenager, having to order hamburgers, then sitting on the curb out front of the restaurant to eat them because his Black team mates and friends could not go inside. Jim always had friends from different ethnic backgrounds."
Mary London perhaps regretted that she did not have a better relationship with her wayward son when he was growing up, but down deep I think I know how she felt. Perhaps there was a degree of reluctance in accepting any credit for his remarkable turnaround and the outstanding man that he became...And Jim no doubt understood perfectly.
I cannot help but wonder, after all said and done, what his home town high school Principal Ed Logan and teachers Frank Brown, Marion Beggs, Albert Woolner, Winnifred Kincade and Dresden Police Chief Alvin Watson, would think it they were alive today and able to read this account about a young lad they let get away. Imagine, a supposedly ne'er-do-well, rough-around-the-edges youth, virtually unteachable and unmanageable, resurfacing years later with a PhD. and an impeccable record as a teacher, politician and humanitarian...Almost inconceivable.
My hat is off to Doris London who saw something special in Jim that others failed to see. She was her husband's enabler, his rock...and his lifetime love. She was in every respect, the woman behind the success of a very unique man. God bless her!
It has been my distinct pleasure...
Jim and Doris were married just about the time that the hardware store went out of business. Realizing that a Grade 10 education was never going to get him very far, Jim took a high school correspondence course, earning his Grade 12 diploma in one year and being hopelessly bitten by the higher education bug.
"Jim always wanted to teach," said Doris in a recent telephone interview. "He was very smart and had an aptitude for it. He had such exceptional energy for life and wanted to improve himself by continuing his education and I encouraged it." With the support of his nursing wife, Jim enrolled at the University of Victoria and took a full-time job working in an Eaton's sporting goods department in off-school hours for several years. Extremely active on campus in various capacities, Jim was an elected member of the student's council and served as the student director from an office in the Student Union Building. After graduation, he was appointed alumnae representative on the university's board of directors.
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| Dr. Jim London, PhD. |
According to Doris, Jim spent three summers in Seattle and traveled once a month in fall, winter and spring to Seattle from Clearwater in order to complete his doctorate. "I am not sure of the exact mileage, but it was six hours to Vancouver and then another two to Seattle in good driving conditions," she added. "Often in winter there were icy mountain roads and snow storms to cope with. Jim was told at the outset of his course work that the only acceptable excuse for being absent was death--HIS OWN!" Indeed, he never missed a class, an assignment or a day's work at his school in Clearwater.
HE SERVED 23 YEARS AS A TEACHER AND PRINCIPAL
Dr. Jim London's passion for education was first realized as a junior high school teacher in Langford before being named Vice-Principal and Principal for high schools in Fort Nelson and Clearwater. When he eventually left the public school system after 10 years as principal in Clearwater, he continued to serve academia by teaching at Malaspina College and the University of Victoria. In 1990, he established the education program for training teachers at Malaspina in Nanaimo. He finished his career at Uvic as a "teacher of teachers", as Doris puts it.
After retirement Jim was elected to the Sooke District School Board where he served a chairman. He also led a Group Study Exchange to Nigeria and took part in another Rotary Club exchange to England.
Doris explained that Jim had a special empathy for children from families of little means and students like him who had trouble adapting to the school regimen. "He knew from first-hand experience how difficult it was for them."
One of his major literary accomplishments was in the form of a book "Public Education, Public Pride": The centennial history of the British Columbia School Trustees Association. A massive undertaking, the publication tracked the history of the oldest trustee association in Canada from its first meeting of one female and 19 male trustees in the Vancouver School Board offices in 1905 to present day. The thoughtful work was an essential guide to the evolution of public education in the province, with a focus on school trustees' role in that history.
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| Our boy Jim is shown (left) in this photo after having been declared Senior Grand Champion at a judo tournament in Vancouver (circa 1965). He won 11 matches in one day enroute to the championship. His Victoria Club captured the team title. |
Indicative of the degree of his involvement was the fact that he was an active scuba diver and almost unbelievably, he skied in the B.C. Senior Winter Games prompting me to ask Doris if her husband ever found time to sleep. "That was just him," laughed Doris, "so much energy and enthusiasm for life...If the truth was known, I think he may have been a bit ADHD."
JIM THE POLITICIAN: MAYOR OF LANFORD, B.C.
His unparalleled dedication to community manifested itself in a variety of ways. Surprisingly, he was the first elected mayor of the newly amalgamated City of Langford, a region of 29,228 residents on southern Vancouver Island. Langford is considered one of Greater Victoria's Western Communities and is the urban core of the West Shore. He was the founding president of the Juan de Fuca Kinsman Club, President of the Rotary Club of Colwood and recipient of the Paul Harris Fellowship Award (the highest honour afforded Rotarians).
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| Mayor Jim London and his Langford, B.C. council. |
Historian, former teacher, lawyer and long-serving Juan de Fuca Kinsmen Club member Ken Warren recalls with fondness attending Kinsmen conventions with Jim and Doris and playing hockey with Jim in a midnight teachers league. He also marvels at how Jim found time to be "president of five different associations and societies in one year."
Doris also revealed that her husband's sense of adventure was legendary amongst those who knew him, from diving Australia's Great Barrier Reef (a far cry from diving off the Sydenham River bridge in his Dresden days) to circumventing Vancouver Island and surviving a severe 48-hour storm in his beloved 26-foot sloop "Epiphany". In retirement, he liked nothing better than touring the countryside on his motorcycle. "He always had to have challenges and things that he was working on," said Doris, "including bungee jumping on his 65th birthday -- which he did."
He maintained his interest in writing by producing articles and columns for local newspapers and established "Classic Memories", a business that was an extension of his great fascination for history and people. He was fond of saying how assisting people with getting their personal histories and memoirs on the printed page was even more enjoyable for him than it was for his clients. He derived satisfaction in recording the rich tapestry of people's lives and in Doris' words, "was always on the lookout for new people to meet and exciting places to see." He even produced and sold a script for a television show during his stay in Australia.
Jim's personality and characteristics are generously dispersed between his three sons. The youngest, Tony, works with the International Commission for Missing Persons in far away Sarajevo where he holds dual citizenship so that he can fulfill his position as a player-coach with the B & H (Bosnia and Herzogovina) National Hockey Team that is a member of the highly competitive International Ice Hockey Federation. Tony married a local Sarajevo girl and has a daughter and five-month old son.
Son David is a Warrant Officer in the Canadian Armed Forces. He and his family (wife and two sons) spent four years in Sri Lanka where he was in charge of security at the Canadian embassy before being transferred back to Victoria where he is currently stationed. He has also served in Gernmany, Croatia/Bosnia and Afghanastan. Dan is involved in the surgical equipment sales business and lives in Ladner, B.C. where he shares custody of a son. I met Dan in 2003 when he accompanied his father to Dresden where Jim was being inducted into the Sports Hall of Fame along with team mates from the previously-mentioned 1953 all-Ontario championship juvenile baseball team.
Sadly, Jim succumbed to the ravages of leukemia on Sunday, January 13, 2008. He was 73 years of age. When it was learned that Jim had a limited amount of time to live, Bob (Peters) spent a few days with him at his home in Victoria in 2007. "We had a real good visit," stated Bob, "but I wish we could have had more time together. He was such an interesting guy and he was always very good to me."
Bob, Homer Smith and Jim Bresett attended their old friend's memorial service at the Gordon United Church in Langford where Jim had been a member. Bob recalls that it was a "packed house, complete with full choir and impressive, heartfelt eulogies."
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| Doris London |
Doris said that Jim's mother never did comment on how she felt about his achievements. She was proud of all her son’s. While she did not understand why Jim was not like her other three sons, she had considerable influence on him in terms of his social conscience, his sense of fairness, honesty and work ethic. He remained a Christian throughout his adult life, being an active member of the United Church. Doris said that Jim often quoted one of his mother's sayings: 'Right is right, and wrong is no man’s right'. "He lived by that tenant and always had a strong sense of justice. It made him a good principal who was very popular with is students," Doris went on to say.
"Even after he was dead, I had student’s tell me about the impact he had on their lives." she added. "Growing up in Dresden, with many Black friends, enabled him to quickly deal with racial tensions that were present between East Indian students and others in that community when he first became a principal. For 10 years, there was no signs of racism in his school. Jim sometimes recalled, as a teenager, having to order hamburgers, then sitting on the curb out front of the restaurant to eat them because his Black team mates and friends could not go inside. Jim always had friends from different ethnic backgrounds."
Mary London perhaps regretted that she did not have a better relationship with her wayward son when he was growing up, but down deep I think I know how she felt. Perhaps there was a degree of reluctance in accepting any credit for his remarkable turnaround and the outstanding man that he became...And Jim no doubt understood perfectly.
I cannot help but wonder, after all said and done, what his home town high school Principal Ed Logan and teachers Frank Brown, Marion Beggs, Albert Woolner, Winnifred Kincade and Dresden Police Chief Alvin Watson, would think it they were alive today and able to read this account about a young lad they let get away. Imagine, a supposedly ne'er-do-well, rough-around-the-edges youth, virtually unteachable and unmanageable, resurfacing years later with a PhD. and an impeccable record as a teacher, politician and humanitarian...Almost inconceivable.
My hat is off to Doris London who saw something special in Jim that others failed to see. She was her husband's enabler, his rock...and his lifetime love. She was in every respect, the woman behind the success of a very unique man. God bless her!
It has been my distinct pleasure...
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| Bon Voyage: Jim and his beloved sailboat "Epiphany". |
