Kenneth Laurence John

Aug 14, 1935 -

Oct 6, 2023

Kenneth Laurence John was a force of nature. He lived a big, bold, unconventional, uncompromising life and found friends and adventure at every bend in the road. Few people in this world have the strength and courage and determination to truly take the road less taken, much less to live there, but that was always Laurence's choice. He began life in small town Estevan, Saskatchewan, the younger son of Ken and Kay John, and brother to Frank. Inseparable on the ice and off, both boys were avid hockey players. For Laurence, the world came calling in the form of an athletic scholarship, and he followed the call to college in the United States. As a star collegiate hockey player and team captain, he led his team to victory and met the first love of his life, Sharon, on the beautiful University of Denver campus. They soon married and lived a golden, idyllic young-marrieds life on the beaches of Southern California, where they had three children—Kristin, Kent, and Laura. It wasn't long before the lure of adventure called again. In 1968, Laurence and Sharon and their children (and friends and the family dog) loaded up their VW bus and headed out, looking for "home," which they found in the lush, green Pacific Northwest. Here, the family began to create the life that would define them for years: they found a big piece of land and built the first family-owned campground. In this world of rugged, outdoorsy recreation, Laurence found his passion. A passion that would ultimately lead him and Sharon north…to Alaska. There, on the banks of the beautiful Kenai River, Laurence and Sharon joined forces with homesteader Kathy Pedersen Haley, and created the Great Alaska Adventure Lodge. Pictures of it, and the memories made there, fill the photo albums of friends and strangers alike. Countless people credit Laurence and Great Alaska with changing the course of their lives, igniting in them a passion for fishing and adventure. The loss of his wife, Sharon, was a devastating blow to Laurence, and to his family and friends. It was Alaska that saved Laurence and gave him a way to move on. He partnered with his son, Kent, and grew the lodge—and their iconic Bear viewing camp on Chitina Bay--into one-of-a-kind destinations for another generation. There was nothing Laurence's family, and his beloved brother, Frank's, family, loved more than gathering there, casting a line into the river, and sharing stories around the fire in the summer's long-lasting light. In Alaska, Laurence met and married the second love of his life, Debbie Edwards John. Laurence and Debbie were a team in every way, through and through, and they traveled the world together, finding and fully embracing adventure after adventure. Even at the end, as Laurence's powerful body and life force began to fail, they never stopped believing in "taking off," and letting the road be their guide. He leaves big tracks to follow, but running beside those tracks, invisible to so many, is the truth of his life, which lives on in his wife, his children, his grandchildren, his great grandchildren, his friends, and his Canadian family: it is the permission and the encouragement to go one's own way, boldly and with passion. Wherever that road leads. Laurence's legacy is one of creativity and exploration and taking chances. Everyone who met him felt the power of his personality and couldn't help wanting to be just a little bit like him. He was a fighter, a creator, a dreamer, and his memory should be held close, used as a reminder to all to live life to the fullest, to come to the end, surrounded by love, and say, "Man, what a ride." Instead of sending flowers, the family has requested that you plant a tree or do a random act of kindness in Laurence's memory. Arrangements entrusted to The Stone Chapel Poulsbo Mortuary in Poulsbo, Washington.