JON CANADAY

October 9, 1939 – July 14, 2009

 

Every man who met Jon Canaday wished they could be like him.  But only in far-flung fantasies could anyone other than Jon be that untamed, that strong, that brave, or….that free.  Jon Canaday was more alive than any twenty people.  He squeezed every moment, joy, thrill, or meaning out of an amazing life’s fabric.  Simply, Jon was better than you at living life.  He loved his cigars, his rum, pistols that shot straight, women that loved true, and motorcycles that set him free.

 

Jon did not live life tentatively, nor was he a small person satisfied with the safety of mediocrity.  He was bigger than life—a vital force that veritably filled the room with his enthusiasm….and with his laughter.  Jon was a member of UDT-21—precursors of the US NAVY SEALS.  He was a real American who never forgot his duty to his country, and served it under many flags.  Jon was a true American hero.

 

He was a super-patriot who maintained a soft spot in his heart for his brothers in arms who lived in nursing homes and hospitals—many of whom still nursed wounds from old wars.  Jon frequently liberated those old soldiers, and took them for special R & R in the watering holes and gentlemen’s clubs of South Florida.

 

Despite all of his passion for life, first and foremost, Jon considered himself to be the luckiest father on the planet.  His conversations were rarely about himself, or his latest exploit—they were about his sons, daughter and grandkids.  To separate Jon from his sense of fatherhood was an impossibility.  His family was his life.

 

Jon was a pioneer in digital communications and founded a number of entrepreneurial ventures throughout the United States, Europe and Russia.  He was most recently CEO of ViewWay—an alternative-advertising media company based in South Florida.

 

Jon did not pass away in a passive, footnote-sort-of-a-way.  Jon died riding his motorcycle on a sunny day in South Florida.  He lived out the axiom that was written on the back of his motorcycle helmet: DIE LIVING.

 

Godspeed....