John Rowland (6) (1910–2002)

[excerpted from Obituary]
John lived an interesting life, travelling around the world in the 1930's selling Canadian Comment and MacLean's Magazines. He sailed to the South Seas where he was the extended guest of the King of the Fijian island of Kandavu. In New Zealand he was made an honorary officer aboard the sailing ship of Count Felix Von Luckner, the famous sea raider of WW1. In China, he refused author/adventurer Richard Halliburton's offer of passage on the ill-fated sailing ship The Sea Dragon, which was lost in a typhoon on its way to the 1939 Treasure Island World's Fair in San Francisco. In 1940 he built a boat at Mayo, Yukon Territories, and rowed it down the Stewart and Yukon Rivers all the way into Alaska. He was the first Canadian representative for Newsweek Magazine and he sold subscriptions to miners in the Yukon, many being original sourdoughs from the gold rush of 1898. While in Dawson City he rented a cabin from Klondike Kate.

In 1941, he answered the call to duty and enlisted in the Royal Canadian Navy. He was one of the first officer graduates from Royal Roads in Victoria and served as Lieutenant on the Corvettes HMCS Ville de Quebec and HMCS Winnipeg, performing convoy duty on the North Atlantic until 1945.

The highlights of his life were published in his successful 1993 autobiography Slipping the Lines, Adventures in Peace and War. He spent his last years ensuring that everyone he met bought a copy of his book. A consummate salesman, he even got US President Bill Clinton to buy a copy, at full price in US dollars.