John James McConnell

It is with great sadness and heavy hearts that we announce the sudden passing of John James McConnell II of Calgary.

John was seemingly on the road to recovery from a near-fatal bout with flesh-eating disease earlier this year when he stopped breathing on the morning of Nov. 19. With his distraught wife Sara praying at his side, John was rushed to Peter Lougheed Hospital. Despite feverish attempts by medical staff to revive him, John succumbed to a heart attack.

“I’ll cry today, I’ll cry tomorrow, I’ll cry next week, I’ll cry next year … I’ll cry until I meet you in heaven,” Sara said as she watched in horror at the hospital.

John and Sara Gebreab met late in 2007 after John, a professional mechanical engineer, left Calgary for work in Dubai. Sara, originally from Ethiopia, was a receptionist in the same office tower complex that John worked in. Demonstrating the persistence and perseverance that were his hallmarks, John took a shining to Sara, often offering her chocolates. When his job didn’t pan out in Dubai and he took another engineering position in Seoul, South Korea, he hired Sara to look after his dachshund Scooby. When he came back to Dubai every three months to visit, he would shower her with gifts. Then Sara was offered a job in Germany, and John, worried he would lose her, proposed. Sara accepted and they were married in the summer of 2010 in Ethiopia. “He was a very loving person,” Sara said.

A year later, after welcoming their first son, John Jr. into the world, John accepted a new position in Calgary with Imperial Oil with the promise he would be able to move his young family to Canada within four months. Unfortunately, John’s powers of perseverance were severely put to the test yet again when he became embroiled in a four-year fight with immigration officials to bring the family to Calgary. Finally, after numerous attempts involving lawyers, immigration officials in Africa and Canada and even his local MP, Sara and John Jr. were able to move to Calgary this past April. And just in time, for Sara was having difficulties with her pregnancy. She gave birth one month prematurely to twins Julia and Ben in May. Despite some initial concerns, the babies survived and were healthy. And John became the proverbial doting parent.

“There’s something pretty special when you look at them and they look back at you and you see the sparkle in their eyes,” John said in early November.

John was born in Regina in January of 1964 to John and Doreen McConnell, a brother to older sisters Mary Ann and Betty Jane. The family lived in Regina, Michigan, Ottawa and finally settled in Saskatoon, where John attended junior and senior high school. He was very sports minded, playing on his high school basketball and football teams at Evan Hardy Collegiate. He attended the University of Saskatchewan College of Engineering starting in 1982. He worked hard at university, but he also loved to have a good time with his numerous friends. He ran into some difficulty in his fourth and final year, and didn’t quite finish his degree in mechanical engineering. Undeterred, he entered the work force, getting jobs both related to his area of study, and a few unrelated, in Saskatoon and Calgary for the next six years. Then he decided to go back to the U of S to finish his engineering degree. “ The fact that he was out of university for six years, had worked with a number of companies and decided to go back and get his degree … shows his perseverance and determination,” said his father John, who has always been a strong supporter and confidante for his son.

After earning his degree, John was hired for a series of engineering jobs in the oil and gas industry in Calgary, gaining valuable experience and knowledge. But after his mother died in 2007, and the economy took a turn for the worse, John showed his adventurous side by moving overseas to Dubai. The culture shock was alleviated to some extent when he met and fell in love with his future wife.

But Sara endured her own culture shock when she and John Jr. finally moved to Calgary earlier this year. Not only did she have to learn new customs, speak a different language, meet new friends and endure a much colder climate, she had the daunting task of caring for two new babies and a toddler. And then, out of the blue, John contracted flesh-eating disease, was in a coma for eight days, and nearly died. He survived, was regaining his health, looking forward to going back to work full-time and things were definitely looking up. That is until Nov. 19.

“We always had lots of fun,” Sara said. “We had a good happy life together.”

John will be sadly missed by Sara, John Jr., Ben and Julia, father John, mother-in-law Tadelech Fairs, his two sisters, two sisters-in-law, two brothers-in-law, and numerous other friends and members of his extended family. He was predeceased by his mother Doreen.

A Funeral Service will be held at FOSTER’S GARDEN CHAPEL, 3220 – 4 Street N.W., Calgary (across from Queen’s Park Cemetery) on Friday, November 27, 2015 at 10:00 a.m. Interment will follow at Queen’s Park Cemetery. Memorial donations may be made directly to the estate of John McConnell. Expressions of sympathy can be made at www.fostersgardenchapel.ca.