TORONTO — John Cyopeck, one of the trucking industry’s most loved and respected ambassadors has lost his battle with brain cancer this Easter weekend. He died at home, in his sleep at the age of 61.

His wife Maureen and his children have lost a loving husband and father. The entire trucking industry in Canada has lost one of its true gentlemen and finest leaders, says Ontario Trucking Association President David Bradley in a statement.

John, who was CEO of Canpar Transport, vice-chair of the Ontario Trucking Association, and chairman of the Canadian Trucking Alliance, had been fighting brain cancer over the last year and a half.

John wouldn’t want us to feel sorry for him, says David Bradley.
He would want us to carry on building the industry he believed in.

“While it was clear that his illness, surgery and the treatments he had received were taking a toll on John, nobody anticipated that the end would come so soon,” says Bradley. “We all wanted so badly for him to beat his cancer. For the longest time he seemed to be doing so marvellously well and had inspired all of us to believe; to be positive; and to be charitable to others even less fortunate.

“In time, I hope we will come to see the suddenness of John’s passing as a blessing.”

John achieved many triumphs over his half-century in the trucking industry, but it was especially during the last year that he had the biggest impact on people’s lives.

Last summer, John delivered the $1 million-plus he promised to raise for the Trillium Health Centre Foundation. Earlier in 2005 John underwent surgery at the centre in Mississauga. He was so impressed with its “fantastic service” it inspired him to pledge — with the help of other leaders in the trucking industry — $1 million to house the Trillium hospital’s new MRI unit. John kicked off the campaign by personally donating $100,000.

“I feel compelled to assist those who are directly affected by stressful and often life-threatening delays,” he said at the time.

“The campaign was a success not because John was sick, but because of the man himself,” says Bradley. “The industry would have rallied around John had he been in perfect health. That is how admired he was.”

This past November, John received yet another standing ovation from his peers as he accepted the most prestigious award in the trucking industry. The 2005 Trailmobile Service to the Industry Award was presented to John at the 79th annual Ontario Trucking Association’s 79th annual convention. The award honors an individual who, by their commitment, vision, leadership and unstinting service, has made an outstanding contribution to the development and success of the truck transportation industry.

“I don’t know what to say,” John told the crowd as he accepted the award. “All of you have delivered my dream.”

Bradley recalls how at a recent CTA general meeting in Scottsdale, Ariz. he told John what a privilege it had been to work with and for him during his first year as chairman. “My last words to him now seem so ironic,” Bradley says. “I spoke for all when I said what an example of courage, of decency, and of selflessness he and Maureen had set for all of us. But, I also said to him that while he had accomplished so much during the preceding year, I know that if he could, he would have wanted to slow time down. John looked at me and nodded.

“John would not want us to feel sorry for him,” Bradley continued. “He would want us to carry on building the industry and the associations he so believed in. But, it is we who knew John, who were lucky enough to call him friend, or simply to be inspired by him, who were blessed, and who will continue to be blessed so long as we carry John’s memory with us.”

Friends may call at the Turner & Porter Peel Chapel, 2180 Hurontario Street, Mississauga (Hwy. 10 N. QEW) 2-4 and 6-9 pm on Thursday and 5-9 pm on Friday. Funeral Mass will be held at St. Patrick’s Church, 921 Flagship Dr. (at Tomken) on Saturday April 22 at 11 am. If desired, donations in John’s memory may be made to Gerry and Nancy Pencer Brain Tumour Centre, c/o Princess Margaret Hospital or Trillium Health Centre-Mississauga.