John I. Boras passed away peacefully with his beloved wife Marie and his family at his bedside shortly after dawn on Sunday, October 18, 2009.

Lawyer, city councillor, separate school trustee, businessman, veteran, lecturer, broadcaster and politician, John is survived by his wife of close to 57 years Marie, their five children; Dorothy Boras of Pincher Creek, Marian Stevens and her husband Glen of Cleveland, Ohio, Alan Boras and his wife Jilaine of Calgary, Elaine Barton and her husband Brian of Edmonton and Gayle Koep and her husband Jeff of Calgary. John leaves behind their eight grandchildren; Alyson and Ryan Stevens, Andrea, Caresa and Kevin Boras, Jilaine Barton and Jacob and Cole Koep. John is also survived by his brothers Bing and Walter F. Boras, and their wives Vicki and Fran of Lethbridge, sisters Anne Chontosh of Taber and Marie Moore and her husband Ed of Medicine Hat. John was predeceased by his brother-in-law Andy Chontosh.

John was born in the tiny Mediterranean village of Vitina, Bosnia Herzegovina (Yugoslavia) on August 28, 1923. At the age of three he emigrated with his parents to begin a new Canadian life on a farm near Stirling, Alberta. At 15, his family moved to their own quarter section of land south of Iron Springs where he attended school and worked helping his parents farm until he was lured to overseas adventure by the chance to volunteer for the Royal Canadian Air Force. John trained at the Lethbridge airport to serve as a wireless operator on a bomber during the Second World War, a three-year assignment that included 18-months in England.
Following the war, John earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Agricultural Economics at the University of Alberta in 1951, a time when he whet his insatiable appetite for politics joining the youth Liberal party and partaking in the university's annual mock parliament in the role of prime minister. During the decade following graduation, he progressed through a series of sales management positions at farm equipment maker J. I. Case Co., with assignments in Calgary, Winnipeg and Toronto.

On November 20, 1952, he married Marie Clara Imholte of Clear Lake, Minnesota, who he had met while attending a sales convention in Davenport, Iowa. At 37 and with three school-aged children, he returned to the U of A to pursue his long-standing career ambition of becoming a lawyer, earning a law degree in 1964 at the age of 40. After articling in Calgary, John returned to southern Alberta in 1966 to join a Lethbridge law firm and in the early 1970s he established an independent practice that later included other partners. During the 24 years that he practiced law in Lethbridge, John became very active in public and community service, running in 11 elections at the federal, provincial, municipal and school trustee level. One of John's greatest thrills and privileges was running as the Lethbridge Liberal candidate in the Trudeaumania election of 1968. He went on to serve nine years, including three years as chairman, on the Lethbridge Separate School Board and nine years as an alderman on Lethbridge City Council. Forever keen for public debate, John hosted a weekly public affairs discussion program on Lethbridge cable television called A Second Opinion, and taught business law as a sessional lecturer at the University of Lethbridge. For several years, John kept his hand in agriculture by partnering with his brother Walter in a cow-calf operation near Iron Springs.

Throughout his career and beyond his retirement in 1990 from the practice of law, John served in various board and executive positions in numerous associations and public service organizations, including the Associated Canadian Travellers, Lethbridge Family Service, Canadian Cancer Society, the Alberta Catholic School Trustees Association, Canadian Catholic School Trustees Association, Alberta School Trustees Association, the Knights of Columbus, but most prominently in the Liberal Party of Canada, the Alberta Liberal Party, plus a weekly, first-question attendance at the Southern Alberta Council on Public Affairs. In the past year, John suffered a series of heart ailments including a stroke last week that led to his passing Sunday. John's family wishes to thank the compassionate caregivers of St. Michael's Health Centre and the Lethbridge medical personal who provided their husband and father with warm-hearted care over the past 14 months.

Prayers and a celebration of John's vibrant life will be held at 7:30PM, on Thursday, October 22, 2009, at MARTIN BROS. RIVERVIEW CHAPEL, 610 - 4th St., Lethbridge, Alberta.

A Funeral Mass will be held at 10:30AM, on Friday, October 23, 2009, at the OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION CATHOLIC CHURCH, 2405 - 12th Ave., S., Lethbridge, Alberta.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations in John's memory be made to St. Michael's Health Centre Foundation, 1400 - 9 Ave., S., Lethbridge, Alberta, T1J 4V5, or to the All Saints Parish Building Fund, 2405 - 12 Ave., S., Lethbridge, Alberta, T1K 0P4.