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John ‘Skip’ Everett Yale,
Counselor, Caring Husband/Pappa
Born June 8th, 1934- Died June 1st 2007 of a seizure, aged 72
The first time I met John Yale we were both attending a professional development day for the London Board of Education.. He wore a blue jacket with a gold crest of arms from Mc Gill University along with a red cravat.
John came to London Ontario in 1970 where he counseled an eclectic group of students at H B Beal Technical School. Strange, with his strong academic background after attending high school at Trinity College, along with a Bachelors./Masters degree in Counseling he found his niche counseling the core area students.
As fate would have it I found myself the Head of Students Services at Laurier High school with John as one of my counselors. I found him to be the epitome of a good teacher. With his quiet, patient, demeanor John was an excellent listener to the many travails of his students. No matter how busy he was he always found the time to help those in need.
He thoroughly enjoyed interacting with his “kids’. John was both a mentor and role model for students and staff who were most fortunate to be guided by him.
John was a very proud , independent gentlemen who did it his way. He lived life to the fullest. A second hand older model Volvo with leather seats with only 300,000 km was the only proper way to travel.
John was an uncomplicated happy man with simple tastes. He enjoyed a cold glass of beer after a friendly game of golf with his buddies. He was a family man who shared his love of life with his wife Rada for forty-four years. Two children Robert/ Melissa made him proud to be Pappa to three gorgeous grandchildren, Christopher, Olivia & Harrison.
John retired from the Thames Valley School Board after 27 years of service in 1997. In July 2005 he was diagnosed with Glioblastoma Multiforme a deadly form of brain Cancer. The oncologist gave John’s family the bad news that he had four to six months to live.
John & Rada contacted the Huffeland Klinik, Holistic Immuntherapy for Cancer treatment in Germany. They sent along all of the records and subsequently flew to the center for help.
Simply amazing that with the clinic’s help John survived for nineteen months with no seizures after intervention from the Holistic Center.
Recently the seizures returned with a vengeance. John entered Parkwood Hospital, Palliative Care Unit in London Ontario where he was cared by Dr Cathy Walsh and her dedicated staff.
To-day, June 8th would have been John’s 73rd birthday.
There are thousands of John’s special students who will be taken aback when they read this notice. He was too young to die. The sages tell us that the good die young. With all of the travails in the world perhaps God needed a wise compassionate man’s counsel?
John/Skip will be missed by his friends, family, colleagues and his former students.
Len Lesser friend and fellow counselor
3445 Hamilton Road,
R. R. #2 Dorchester, Ont. N0L 1G5
519 268-1049 lenlesser@hotmail com
Len Lesser