John Boughen

from Ross Funeral Chapel website
DIED
John Boughen
March 5, 1942 - June 27, 2013
Peacefully at Northumberland Hills Hospital, Cobourg on Thursday June 27th, 2013 in his 72nd year. John Boughen, beloved husband of Meredith [Jemmett] Boughen. Loving father of Mary.
Brother of Don (Eva), Betty (Allan Dickson) and Dwayne Boughen (Shelley).
Uncle of Carmel, Scott, Allison Rajab (Omar), Sarah (Dell), Jennifer, Jenni Colbert (Tim) and Natasha Waterman (Bill)of Florida, Danielle Case (Andrew), Cyndi, Jacquie (Matt).
John will also be missed by his large extended family and his many friends.

John was raised at Dale Corners in the former Hope Township, now Ward 2, Port Hope. Having wanted all his life to be a farmer, he graduated in 1962 from the Agricultural College at the University of Guelph.

After the death of his father in 1986, John took on the primary responsibility for Dalecrest Farms. With the untimely death of his brother-in-law, Chris Jemmett, in 1994, he and his brother, Dwayne, took over the operation of that farm, at Perrytown, as well, and the two continued to expand the farm operation, which they operated as partners.

John was very active in the community, usually with an eye to the betterment of agriculture. He served on the former Hope Township Ratepayers Association, the Port Hope Agricultural Advisory Committee and spent many years serving the Ontario Federation of Agriculture through the Northumberland Federation of Agriculture, where he was a past president and represented his municipality as a director. He also served on the East Durham and Port Hope Historical Societies and the Port Hope Probus Club and has addressed numerous organizations on the importance of agriculture, over many years.

The Boughen farm at Dale Corners was the site for the well-attended Northumberland Plowing Match in 2012 and John was active in the ultimately successful effort to preserve the 'Golden Plough' and 'Cairn of Peace' on the grounds of the Northumberland County Building in Cobourg, commemorating the location of the first World Championship Ploughing Match held on the County Farm in 1953, which John had attended as a youngster.

During the historic ice storm of 1998, John led the charge to organise a local program to send generators to farmers in Eastern Ontario and Quebec.

He was active in the Hay West campaign of 2002, in which hay was shipped to prairie farmers to help feed their livestock during a severe drought.

For several years, when the Big Brothers/Big Sisters needed straw bales for their soap-box derby in downtown Port Hope, John donated and delivered those.

John contributed to the Canadian Food Grains Bank, a program by which Canadian farmers share produce with the needy in Third World countries. And he has taken an active part, in numerous ways, in the annual Port Hope Agricultural Fair from his early childhood up to 2012.

John Boughen was a hard-working farmer, a good neighbour, a devoted husband, father and family man, as well as an admirable, public-spirited citizen. Recently, he was honoured to receive the Municipality of Port Hope's first-ever civic award for agriculture and to be entered on the Quinte Agricultural Wall of Fame at Stirling Agricultural Museum.