Sunday, February 14, 2021
It is with deep sadness I write about the passing of my brother JAMES KENT EARNSHAW (Jim) on February 13, 2021. Jim was born July 18, 1946, the beloved son of the late Harry James and Edith Annie Earnshaw (nee Kent). Jim’s love and passion from an early age was flying. Our house in Maple was in the flight path of the main runway at Maple Airport. Jim would watch the planes landing and taking off and dreamed of one day obtaining his pilot’s licence and flying high in the sky. At fifteen, Jim joined the Air Cadets 172 Squadron, located at the barracks on Avenue Road, north of Eglinton in Toronto. For years every Monday night my parents would make return trips driving to the barracks. At sixteen, Jim’s dream of flying became a reality when he was awarded a flying scholarship from the Air Cadets. He took his lessons at Maple Airport with instructors Jim Garrett and Len McTaggart?, and at seventeen he had his pilot’s licence. He actually had his pilot’s licence before his vehicle drivers licence. Jim became an electrician after from Bayview Secondary School and eventually a master electrician but he still remained involved with the Air Cadets as an instructor. Jim was also an enthusiastic skier and joined High Park Ski Club. He went on many ski trips with the Club to Blue Mountain, Quebec and Vermont. It was through a mutual friend at the Ski Club that he met his first wife Cathy. They had two sons, James and Michael. Jim continued his passion for flying and obtained all ratings up to flying a 767 (although he never flew one after receiving the rating). He taught flying for Seneca College at Buttonville Airport and later also at Barrie Airport. Jim’s love and passion was taken away when his Pilot’s licence was revoked by the Department of Transport due to prescribed medication for his health. About the same time, Jim also changed career paths and started working in the IT department for Sun Life Insurance. He was there for approximately fifteen years when health issues caused him to go on disability and early retirement. Jim was a devout Christian and very involved with church life throughout the years. Many times in Maple, Jim and Doctor Armitage would be the only two at the early morning communion service at St. Stephen’s Anglican Church. He continued his church involvement with Men’s Fellowship groups and looking after the church sound systems at the different churches he belonged to over the years. It was at church that Jim met his current wife Beverley and her family. Finally, Jim’s favourite poem was “High Flight” by John Gillespie Magee Jr., a World War ll Royal Canadian Fighter Pilot and poet.
“Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on Laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds – and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of – wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace,
Where never lark, or even eagle flew;
And, while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.”
Go dear brother fly with the angels and touch the face of God.
