The founding head of Brock’s Geography department will be remembered in a memorial service at Pond Inlet on April 6.

John Jackson, who died peacefully at his home in Kitchener on March 19 at age 84, was known for his passionate interest in history and geography in Niagara. Jackson produced a large body of work, especially on St. Catharines and the Welland Canal, said Alun Hughes, Geography professor and former colleague of Jackson’s.

“Despite lacking the research aids we take for granted today – computers, the Internet and even in the earliest days microfilm – he synthesized information from an extraordinary range of sources, and I am constantly amazed at what he achieved,” Hughes said. “Without him, our knowledge of the area would be much poorer.”

Jackson is predeceased in 2004 by his wife Kathleen, as well as a brother, Paul. He is survived by his children Andrew, Susan and Paul, as well as three grandchildren.

The professor emeritus was born in Nottingham, U.K. and raised in Birmingham. He served in the Royal Navy during the Second World War, and studied Geography and Urban Planning at Birmingham University and Manchester University. He wrote more than 20 books, including prize-winning academic and popular histories of the Welland Canal and the City of St. Catharines. After retirement, he was active in Probus and the promotion of local history, as well as travel and gardening.

The memorial service will be at 2:30 p.m. Donations in lieu of flowers may be made to the Canadian Red Cross.

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• Brock professor was “a geographer to the core” — Welland Tribune