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John William Brown
December 30, 1916 - April 9, 2016
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<div itemprop="description">John slipped away peacefully in his sleep on Saturday April 9 in his residence at the Village of Tansley Woods long term care in Burlington, at the age of 99. <br /> <br />He was born in London, England on December 30 1916. Mechanically inclined and passionate about camera and project optics, he worked as a young man at Gainsborough Studios under Alfred Hitchcock, as well as at Pinewood Studios. <br /> <br />As a World War II Royal Air Force officer he was part of RAF Station Bentley Priory. While he flew Hurricanes early on, he had a vision impairment that prevented him from progressing to the Spitfires when they were added to the British fleet. His expertise in optics gave him opportunity to work on gun sights and bomb sights on fighter planes, Lancaster bombers, as well as being involved in reconnaissance aerial photography missions. He was assigned to other missions, some highly secretive, in South Africa, Rhodesia, Egypt, the Middle East, Belgium and Netherlands. <br /> <br />John emigrated to Toronto in 1952 to establish Bell &amp; Howell Canada. John distributed audio visual supplies to the Toronto District School Board and built the Toronto plant where they were to manufacture B&amp;H branded goods as well as camera bodies for Canon and Polaroid. It was at Bell &amp; Howell that he met Trudie, and they married in September 1959. They moved to Markland Woods, Etobicoke and adopted their two sons in 1966. In 1976, the family moved to Mississauga (Meadowvale West) as John moved to a new role with Atomic Energy of Canada Limited. He retired from AECL in 1981. <br /> <br />He was predeceased by his wife, Trudie, in 2007. He lived independently into his 96th year. <br /> <br />He is dearly missed by his sons, Eric and Gary (Alison) and granddaughters Darragh, Triona and Caoilinn. A celebration of life is to be held on Friday April 15 2016 at 10:30am at Wellington Square United Church, 2121 Caroline St. in Burlington Ontario. <br /> <br />Please take a moment to sign our guestbook</div>