BEER: John Michael of Windsor

Passed away peacefully on Tuesday, April 28, 2026 at Windsor Regional Hospital, Ouellette Campus , a month before turning 71. John was born May 28, 1955 in Clinton, Ontario to parents Lillian and John; and hinting-at the ‘glass-half-full’ guy he would become, proved to be a baby who didn’t cry much – which would serve him well: after early years on Ontario Air Force bases (Centralia, Aylmer, Borden), living in Western Canada in the 1960s – in Moose Jaw and Winnipeg – meant playing nine years of organized minor hockey outdoors.

John would go on to play competitive midget hockey north of Toronto (dropping back to defense because his team needed him to), junior for the Exeter Hawks, and later in the OCAA with the Fanshawe Falcons. Even as a kid his curveball was tough to catch and tough to hit. In later years golf partners noticed that he never 3-putted: he credited a tip he received at age 16 from a lanky old Englishman named Nobby. He was a natural at snooker (‘It’s all angles.’) – in fact he was a natural at a lot of things, thanks to outstanding hand-eye coordination. But he never ever bragged – you’d never hear John say “I’m proud of this or that”: he simply did his best, to his own high standards, and submitted it for approval.

A grad of Base Borden Collegiate Institute, SHDHS (Exeter) and Fanshawe College, John founded Graphiscope, a graphic design firm, in 1978 while pursuing retail management in sporting goods in London (a non-skier running its largest ski-outfitter) then North Van and Burnaby. A switch to grocery management in 1985 took him to Sarnia and ultimately Windsor. John was a natural teacher and organizer, a trait that earned him steadfast loyalty from scores of co-workers along the way, as well as countless commendations and promotions.

Like his commonsense safety advice to a kid (“Always leave yourself an exit.”), John always used to say, “At work, learn everyone else’s job, as well as your own”. This credo made him good at systems and systems analysis, with a rep for flexibility, reliability, steadiness and style. He simply knew how to apply himself, and how to make himself indispensable.

Having always kept a hand in graphic arts, John was a co-developer, along with his brother, of Nutwork News, the best daily cartoon for newspapers ever conceived.

In 2008, sniffing changes in the financial world, John felt a nose-to-the-grindstone was called-for, and so began a seven-year odyssey of working six days-a-week from midnight to noon, to clear the note on a beautiful house on a quiet leafy loop (with a park in the middle), two blocks from the river in Windsor.

John’s surviving family will remember him as the family’s best gift-giver (he seemed to keep a list in his head for everyone from one year to the next, always ‘nailing it’ and sparing no expense); a pillar of common sense; a positive thinker (a consummate ‘bucker-upper’); and an irrepressible wit – except when people were eating (fortunately he once proved to be a natural at the Heimlich Maneuvre as well).

He was a sentimental guy who loved reminiscing about the places we lived and the many long car trips we took as a family and in later years, and things like ‘taking shots’ in the basement (hockey) or playing ‘paper baseball’ with the neighbours in Winnipeg. John was always a generous and guiding-hand to his younger brother Steve – as a mentor in gratitude and growing-up – and a rock of common sense and loyalty to his older brother Dave.

John attracted people to him because they enjoyed his company, he made them laugh, and they always had fun around him. Friends, class-mates, team-mates, and colleagues will remember him for his wisecracks and good taste in music. And his common sense.

When it came to dogs, John was a Beagle and Terrier guy, sometimes mixed together. There was Nipper, Sandy, Barkley, Ginger, and Bernie. A Stampeders fan from the age of 6, a bit of a ‘homer’ in adopting the Wings and the Lions in 1987, yet the Tigers could never quite supplant the Jays. He always gave the impression that he wanted badly to be a Leafs fan.

John’s guilty pleasure was True Crime – guilty, because he ultimately concluded that TC gave bad guys ideas. But most of all he enjoyed just hanging with family and friends, a Big Game or a sitcom on TV, and expertly ‘unpacking’ a good song, a good joke, a comedian, or a hockey strategy (almost every losing team failed to shoot the puck enough). John lived for badinage, because it led to making something out of nothing (‘If ya ain’t original, ya ain’t nuthin’). He and his brother Steve wrote innumerable jokes and bits in this way for decades – right up to the end. John was a man of simple tastes and simple pleasures, enjoyed in a sophisticated way. And he was quietly proud of never once having danced in a conga line.

Thanks John. You were a great brother, a loving son, and a great uncle; an honest guy, a funny guy, a hard worker, and a loyal friend. We will speak of you and quote you often.

John is survived by older brother Dave (Dianne), younger brother Steve, niece Kristin and nephew Aaron (Sonath). And Kristin’s girls Katherine, Nicole, and Danielle; and Auntie Luce Beer and his Beer and Mitchell cousins.

A private family memorial service will be held at Haskett Funeral Home, Exeter. Cremation with interment Hensall Union Cemetery.

Donations to the Heart & Stroke Foundation or Erie Wildlife Rescue would be appreciated by the family.