Dr. John Timothy Slykhuis
1920 鈥� 2015
聽John Timothy Slykhuis passed away on February 9th, 2015 at the age of 94 after an unusually interesting and accomplished career. He was an international expert on plant diseases and a medical miracle.聽 Diagnosed with diabetes at the age of 12, he took his first shot of insulin on October 5th, 1932. Through careful management of his diet, he survived 82 years on insulin, longer, than anyone in Canada or possibly the world.
鈥淛ohnny鈥� was the third of four sons of William (Bill) Slykhuis whose parents, Jan Willem Slijkhuis and Fenna Dros emigrated to the Carlyle area from Holland in 1894. His mother, Emma Hodgson, was from Wisconsin, of Norwegian and English descent.
He grew up with his brothers, Arthur (1914- 1998), Henry (1916 鈥� 1983) and Glenn (b.1926) on a farm (David Slykhuis's) that had originally been purchased for pasture at the end of the Moose Mountains. It bordered the White Bear Reserve. Chief Waw-See-Gen Ash and his daughter visited often and Bill Standingready was a good friend of his father鈥檚. Until the residential schools, the two families would get together each fall to slaughter the birds they had raised.
Johnny began his education in Mountain Valley School and graduated from high school in Carlyle. He could not do farm work or serve in the armed forces.聽 So he saved the money he earned from raising sheep and went to the University of Saskatchewan where he specialized in plant diseases. He earned a B.S.A. in 1942 and a M.Sc. in 1943, then went to the University of Toronto where he was granted a Ph.D in 1947 for his research into fungi that cause root rot.
He worked in Harrow, Ontario from 1947 to 1949, Brookings South Dakota from 1949 to 1952, Lethbridge, Alberta from 1952 to 1956, Harpenden, Hertfordshire, England from 1956-7, Ottawa, Ontario from 1957 to 1976 and Summerland B.C. until his retirement in 1985.聽
Along the way he discovered that plant diseases could be transmitted by microscopic insects and identified several previously unrecognized diseases.聽 Only England and Holland had prior knowledge of grass viruses. His discoveries and travels stimulated a great deal of research and international interest.聽 In 1960-61 he visited Japan, the Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, Ceylon, India, West Pakistan, Iran, Jordan, Egypt and Rome.聽 In 1965 he visited Russia and in 1980 he conducted field surveys in Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil and Peru.
For his work, he was elected a fellow of the American Phytopathological Society in 1975, then Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.
He ended his career in Summerland B.C. where he worked on Little Cherry Disease that makes the fruit small, sour and unmarketable and Apple Replant Disease that stops the growth of young trees in old orchards.
He was active in the scouting movement in Harrow, Lethbridge and England. After his retirement his inventive mind and prairie ingenuity led to the founding of the popular Pioneer Workshops in Summerland and Penticton where children could learn how to grind wheat into flour, make rope and build things out of scrap lumber. Ever confronted by challenges, his carpentry was curtailed by macular degeneration. He became an avid user of the CNIB talking book services and, despite being blind, he continued curling.
In the course of his life he amassed a wide range of family and friends. In 1946, he married Ruth Williams of Vancouver, B.C. after they met in the co-operative student housing at the University of Toronto. They had five children: Grace, Margaret, Dorothy, Timothy and Alan. Ruth died of Amyotropic Lateral Schlerosis (A.L.S.) after 38 years of marriage. He then married Ellen Light n茅e Reinholdt from Hussar, Alberta whose husband had A.L.S. like Ruth.
He passed away in Ridge Meadows hospital, Maple Ridge B.C. on February 9th, 2015. He was predeceased by brothers Arthur and Henry and their wives, son Alan and daughter Dorothy.聽 A memorial service was held on February 14th, 2015 at the home of brother Glenn and his wife Martha Slykhuis in North Vancouver.
He will be greatly missed by a wide range of friends and relatives including daughters Grace Woo & son Rueben Lobe (Vancouver), Margaret and Jim Beaudry (Creston, B.C), their sons Josh (Denver) and Noah, his wife Anna and great grandchildren Charlotte and Clara (Calgary), son-in-law Richard Landry and Dorothy鈥檚 children Francis, Nina and Julien Slykhuis-Landry (Montreal) and son Tim and wife JoLam (Ottawa). Surviving relatives in British Columbia include nieces and nephews Carol Morgan (West Vancouver), Gail and Dr. Howard Feldman (North Vancouver), Eric and Rene VanderZee (Sechelt), Ian and Chris Arlaina (Waisman) Slykhuis (Vancouver), and in Saskatchewan Richard and Elsa Slykhuis of Meadow Lake, Joan and Dale Ferrell of Stewart Valley, Helen and Lawrence Dezell of Wawota, Sam and Maria Slykhuis, Glenda and Bob Mason (Regina) and David and Shelley Slykhuis of Carlyle and their many children and grandchildren as well as the descendants of many aunts, uncles and cousins.
In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts may be made to the Canadian Diabetes Association or the Canadian Institute for the blind.
