John Eric Rockingham, 95, a former Darien resident, died from cancer on Sept. 2 in Hamilton, Ontario.
Image by Willie Wax on Wikimedia Commons
Image by Willie Wax on Wikimedia Commons
Born March 5, 1921 in Hull, England died September 2, 2016 at the age of 95, of cancer, in Hamilton Ontario.
Eric will be deeply missed by his wife, Edith Joan; his sons, Chris, Peter and Tony; his daughters-in-law, Marg, Anne and Pam; his grandchildren, Kate, Andrew, Jennifer, Julianne, Jamie; his great-grandchildren, Charlotte and Gregory, and his many friends.
Eric will be remembered for many parts of his extraordinary life. Born March 5 in Hull, England, in his teen years he won honours for his skills and hard work as a Boy Scout. As a student at the Caterham School in Surrey he will be remembered for his play as fly-half for the school rugby team of 1939.
He trained as a geologist at the Royal School of Mines at Imperial College, London, and upon graduation, in 1943, he was sent to Northern Nigeria to help mining tin for the war effort. After the War he returned to Nigeria as a geologist in the Nigerian Geological Survey.
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— This obituary, in slightly different form, was previously published by the Daily Sentinel in Grand Junction, Colo.
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While on leave in 1948 he married Edith Joan Wright, RN. They returned to Nigeria together and began over 68 years of happy marriage. In 1957 they and their young family of three boys moved from Nigeria to Canada (in the winter to northern Ontario) where he worked as an exploration geologist.
He became Manager of Exploration for Union Carbide Canada before being moved to New York on international exploration. Over the years Eric had homes in several communities in East and West Africa, and Ontario (Sioux Look-Out, Timmins, Toronto), and in Vancouver, Rio de Janeiro, and Darien.
He moved in 1979 to Grand Junction, Colo. and retired a few years later. During this retirement in Grand Junction he took up stained glass and gemology. One source of great pride was his role with a community team fabricating and installing over 80 specially commissioned stained glass windows in the Congregational Church in Grand Junction.
His work as a gemologist means that his daughters-in-law and granddaughters are frequently adorned with an array of rings and jewelry.
He was an active supporter of the Salvation Army helping with food drives, Christmas programs and Board duties.
Over his life, he and Joan enjoyed traveling together across North and South America as well as Africa, Australia and Europe. At age 90 he was caught zip-lining in Costa Rica. In November 2015 Eric and Joan returned to Canada to be with family. He will be sorely missed by many.