I just came across the obituary (2) for John Murray Clearwater (Feb. 8, 1966 to March 2, 2022). Text below. I was unaware he had passed. I am posting this in case his family might be able to access the photos below, since I do not know them or have their contact info.
I knew John when he and I were students at King’s College London in London 1991–92, and lived together in King’s College Hall in Camberwell. As noted, I was not aware he had died until I came across this obituary today. The obituary says his wife is “Ms. Pamela Jayne Wheat of Sugarland, Texas.” Coincidentally I have worked in Sugar Land and it is very close to my home in Houston.
When I knew him in London, he went by John Strangelove and was a bit mysterious. As I recall, he was antiwar and something of a leftist, and so we would argue about politics a bit. I remember my friend Paul Comeaux and I teasing him at one point that Canada’s military had more generals than tanks. At one point, for some reason, he shaved off one side of his mustache and the other side of his beard. He only told me later, somewhat reluctantly, that his real name was Clearwater.
In 2004 our mutual King’s College Hall friend, Matt Schemmel, sent some of our King’s College Hall group (me; Paul Comeaux, a lawyer in Dallas; Danesh “Dan” Sarooshi, now a law professor at Oxford; and Bas de Regt, an advocaat in the Netherlands) an article that mentioned John. I posted about the article on LewRockwell.com, where I was blogging at the time. I ended up emailing him a few times from 2004 to 2007 or so; he sent me this biography of him. One time, on one his his trips to the Sugar Land area to visit his wife’s family, we talked about having dinner, but it never came to pass.
RIP, my friend.
***
Some pix of our time in London. The last three are following a dispute we had with the house manager, Mr. Dingly, after some horsing around in the showers with this Irish girl, Michelle Doyle:
When he had shaved off half his beard and mustache. In protest of what, I do not know.
Dan Sarooshi, John Clearwater, Michelle Doyle
Yorgos “George” Fellidis (Greek attorney), John, Paul Comeaux
Mr. Dinghly arguing with Dan Sarooshi about the horseplay, John mediating or enjoying it
With Irish physio student Nicola Cinnamond, Andrew Janowich (then an English major; later an attorney), and John
The Nuke Doctor
[LewRockwell.com, Nov. 18, 2004]
Stephan KinsellaInteresting article: “Friday night on the Discovery Channel in Canada (but not in the U.S.), Canadian filmmaker Michael Jorgensen will make the case that in February 1950, Capt. Theodore F. Schreier, who was from Madison, risked and ultimately lost his life in a single-handed attempt to keep U.S. nuclear weaponry and secrets from falling into enemy hands. The documentary is called “Lost Nuke,” and it promises to be a stunner.”
Coincidentally, the article quotes Canadian nuclear expert Dr. John Clearwater, a curious fellow who was down the hall from me in King’s College Hall in London in 1991-92, when Clearwater and I were fellow King’s College London students (he went by the pseudonym John Strangelove back then). Picture of Clearwater and me in London–he had opposite sides of his mustache and beard shaved off for some weird Canadian reason.
(Clearwater has written some books (2) on Canada and nuclear weapons. )
Thanks to link from Matt Schemmel, a fellow law student in London who noted Clearwater’s name.
Obituary
John Murray Clearwater, M.A., PhD
Born on 8 February 1966 to Thomas Murray and Olga Clearwater of Winnipeg, John became Canada’s foremost nuclear weapons specialist. He was a Diamond Jubilee Medal recipient for his work against nuclear weapons and for veterans. John leaves behind his beloved wife of over twenty years, Ms. Pamela Jayne Wheat of Sugarland, Texas.
After a Master’s degree at Dalhousie University, and working for the Royal Canadian Air Force, John earned his PhD in the War Studies Department of King’s College London under the guidance of Sir Lawrence Freedman. John defended “The Birth of Strategic Arms Control” which later became a university textbook. In January 2006, John moved to Cambodia to take up a temporary posting as the new visiting professor of political science at the Royal University of Phnom Penh. He taught civil society and international relations, and led a master’s seminar for professors on human rights.
John moved to Ottawa in 1994 and worked for the Department of National Defence. He published four books on nuclear weapons, two of which were the basis for television documentaries. John then became the editor-in-chief of the prestigious international monthly journal Arms Control Reporter, published in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was the author of a federal study for the Minister of National Defence on Canadian troops exposed to radiation during nuclear weapons testing. The report to Cabinet resulted in ex gratia payments to thousands of irradiated soldiers.
John loved to travel and visited North Korea twice. He sailed more than once on the QE2 along with his wife Pam. Following their trip around the world, John became the manager and chief operating officer of Visa Services Canada, Inc. a national company which specializes in getting visas for passports for over a decade. He also sat on the international board of directors of PVS Global sarl (Liechtenstein).
John was the first Canadian to be certified as an international class judge at the world kettlebell championships by the International Union of Kettlebell Lifting, having judged in Canada, Korea, Latvia, Germany and Serbia. He also liked to paint and build things and was a long-time member of the International Plastic Modellers Society (IPMS) Canada. But, most of all, he was an avid cat fancier.
John made a daily effort to keep in touch with friends all over the world. Donations in his memory can be made to the Life and Hope Association (LHA) children’s charity in Siem Reap Cambodia where both John and Pam were long-time board members; www.lifeandhopeangkor.org, or give2asia.org/lha or to any charitable organization that will benefit cats.
