Iain Armstrong was, by all accounts, the kind of man anyone would welcome into their homes and hearts. The 61-year-old was happily married for over 35 years to his wife Sharon and the father of two children, Dana and Sean.
Together with his wife, brother and sister-in-law, Armstrong owned Bunches Flowers Co. Last week while trying to stop a robbery near the company’s Southgate Centre store, he was violently attacked. He suffered severe injuries and died in an Edmonton hospital three days later.
READ MORE: Witness describes violent assault at Southgate Centre as ‘horrifying’
Now, his son Sean is sharing his father’s story.
“If we would all behave just a little bit more like Iain, the benefit to humanity would be spectacular,” Sean Armstrong wrote in a touching tribute.
Given the criminal case involving his father’s death will remain in the public eye for some time, Sean said he chose to focus not on the abrupt end, but rather “the rich and worldly totality of my father’s life.”
“While the community at large has been appropriately shocked by the brazen attack, I want people to remember Iain for the adventurous life he lived all the way from his humble beginnings,” Sean wrote in his message accompanying his testimony.
READ MORE: Family remembers Southgate Centre attack victim as old-fashioned, genuine and loving
Global News has published Armstrong’s statement in full, so readers can have a greater understanding of the remarkable life cut short.
Iain’s early life in Africa
John (Iain) Armstrong was born on Feb. 26, 1957, in Bomi Hills, Liberia, the first child of father Samuel Armstrong and mother Oonagh Bushe Armstrong. Due to regional political conditions at the time, he was born a citizen of Scotland, the home of his parents and family.
Envisioning his home and early childhood life wouldn’t be too far a stretch of the imagination for most people in the capital region, as he lived in the residential compound providing accommodation and a tiny slice of normal home luxuries to the workers of the nearby open pit iron ore mine, where Sam Armstrong worked as a millwright.
It was here, three or more dirt road driving hours away from the nearest major port town, with the equatorial jungle on every horizon, that Iain began grade school, played in backyards with his friends, honed his love for tropical fruit (like the mangoes and avocados that accumulated on the tin roof of the family home,) and welcomed into the world his two brothers, Frederick (Eric) Armstrong, and (Samuel) Mark Armstrong.
The fantastic adventure of life in the jungle came to an abrupt and tragic end for Iain’s family in February 1967, when Iain’s uncle Tom (brother of Sam) was slain in a home invasion by an assailant who had burgled a handgun only minutes prior from an adjacent house in the isolated mining town. Following the loss, the Armstrong family returned to their ancestral home of Scotland for a short time before they began their journey west.
Moving to Canada
The family arrived in Montreal, disembarking the ship on October 25, 1967. Initially residing in Toronto for a few weeks, Sam secured a long-term position with the Griffith open pit iron mine at Ear Falls, Ont., deep in the vastly different, but still remote and inhospitable woods of northwest Ontario.
The hamlet of Cochenour, Ont., served as the family residence for the mine employees and their families, and it was here that Iain, the adventurous jungle boy, enjoyed an adolescence rich with outdoor escapades.
Avid about water sports like boating and water skiing, Iain was also an open water lifeguard and swimming instructor at the beaches on Red Lake. Even when the lake was frozen over in the bone-chilling shield winters, he took to the sleds, stoking his lifelong passion for all things fast and mechanical.
College and football career
Iain lived the life of a country boy, and always held himself to the highest standard of work ethic. He attended Cochenour Elementary School and Red Lake District High School, graduating (Ontario Grade 13) in the class of 1976. Following his high school graduation, Iain commenced studies at the University of Manitoba.
Never one to avoid hard work, he returned home to Cochenour every summer, working in the same iron pit mine as his father, to finance his university education.
Eric even recounts Iain’s epic tenacity as a child, describing how he would recruit his brothers to distract a notoriously unfriendly neighbourhood dog, just long enough for Iain to run the length of the yard and complete his newspaper delivery route!
Iain was also a skilled and accomplished football player. Starting with the Red Lake Rams, he continued his sports career playing for the University of Manitoba Bisons, and was eventually called up to the CFL in 1979. Unfortunately, Iain’s football career came to a sudden end due to a knee injury incurred at the B.C. Lions pre-season training camp of ’79.
Meeting his wife
In August 1979, not long before his departure to the training camp, Iain met Sharon.
While his football career may have been cut short, this left ample space for the blossoming young relationship.
He had recounted often throughout his life that he “knew almost immediately that she was the right one.” On Oct. 24, 1980, Sharon Ann Seaman married Iain Armstrong, and the two remained loving and caring partners for 37 years until his passing.
Working for GMC and having children
Completing his studies in 1983, Iain graduated from the University of Manitoba with a bachelor of arts majoring in economics. He was then recruited by GMC to a middle management role, an opportunity he professed to seizing purely because of the gear-head perks of working for a manufacturer — particularly the steady rotation of brand new dealer cars! His occupational demands took Iain and his family through many homes in the Canadian interior.
While initially posted in Thunder Bay, Ont., Iain and Sharon delivered their son Sean William Armstrong in June 1986. Afterwards, the family moved briefly to Swift Current, Sask., before settling in for a couple more years in Winnipeg, Man. In April 1989, the couple joyously welcomed their daughter, Dana Kathleen Armstrong, born in the city where their own relationship had begun. Iain’s final posting with “the General” relocated the family to Saskatoon, Sask.
Opening Bunches Flowers Co.
Being a hardworking and highly self-sufficient man, Iain grew tired of the managerial grind within such a gigantic corporation. This disenchantment seemingly further enabled his continuous strive for independence and self-sufficiency.
In March 1991, Iain and Sharon, in partnership with Iain’s brother and sister-in-law, Eric and Judy Armstrong, founded Bunches Flower Co. in Edmonton, Alta. Sharon’s brother Mike Seaman provided the budding business with critical guidance and insight from his experience operating similar shops in Winnipeg.
Their very first location has remained present, transformed through many relocations and design iterations, in Edmonton City Centre mall (formerly Eatons Centre.) Bunches Flower Co. has since become a mainstay of the independent retail community in Edmonton, employing hundreds of people in the Capital region over the past three decades.
Tragedy struck the Armstrong family once again on July 4, 1993, when the family suffered the passing of Samuel Sr. as a result of a fall while performing maintenance on his eavestroughs.
Life as a father
Despite the never-ending toil of building a business (literally, Iain and Eric performed the vast majority of their own construction labour to open and maintain each retail location,) Iain never let his family or friends fall to the wayside.
Throughout Sean and Dana’s childhood, Iain wore every volunteer hat that he could balance: coaching soccer, chaperoning church youth events, even becoming a highly qualified competition official with Swim Alberta. He seldom missed his Thursday morning men’s coffee group, affectionately referred to by the wives and kids as “the water buffaloes.”
In more recent years, Iain was frequently abroad with his old men’s golfing crew, seizing every opportunity to escape the cold to which he hadn’t really acclimated since his initial arrival in Canada 50 years ago.
Iain had pleasant relationships with his neighbours in Crestwood, and he was a deeply involved member in the community at Laurier Heights Baptist Church. He is held in high regard by the staff at Bunches Flower Co., and he always treated them with the same care and respect as he would his own family.
Iain is survived by his wife Sharon, children Sean and Dana, brother and family Eric, Judy and children, brother and family Mark, Sherry and children, mother Oonagh, and is predeceased by his father Samuel.
His passing has been a sudden, alarming and tragic event, which in no way diminishes his fantastic accomplishments over the past 61 years. Iain never passed by an opportunity to help a person in need, often going out of his way to lend a hand whenever and wherever he could.
He continuously exemplified civility and compassion towards others, leaving a legacy of love in the minds of the thousands of people with whom he interacted over the years. If we would all behave just a little bit more like Iain, the benefit to humanity would be spectacular.
A celebration of life for Iain will be held on Saturday at Laurier Baptist Church, which is the Armstrongs’ home congregation.
A GoFundMe campaign was set up to help cover extra costs incurred by the family over the past week, as well as funeral expenses. The family said extra funds will be donated to Kids Kottage and the Stollery Children’s Hospital in Iain’s memory.
The man wanted for Iain’s death was arrested in Lac La Biche after a five-day-long manhunt. Jordan Martin Cushnie, 23, is charged with second-degree murder, robbery, mischief under $5,000 and possession of break and enter tools.
READ MORE: Southgate Centre attack suspect wanted for murder has been arrested
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