John Bumpus - In Memorium

By his very good friend Earl Kagna

A few weeks ago, the Healey world lost a great enthusiast, and I lost a very good friend.

I met ‘Bumpy’ shortly after moving to Victoria 17 years ago - right after he had acquired his BJ8. We got to know each another during the course of his familiarization with and full restoration of his Healey.

With quite a few starts, stops, and miscues, he completed the task - always with concours judging in mind - basically untrained and on his own, never having attempted anything like it before, to a level that earned a high scoring gold concours award in 2000, at the Ocean Shores, WA Meet. He liked to say that he ‘couldn’t have done it without Earl’, but the reality is that he did it himself, with considerable assistance from his son Scott - I mostly talked a lot.

Our friendship soon went far beyond the Healey hobby - it soon became apparent that we had fairly similar backgrounds and thought alike on many subjects, mostly to do with family - children, adopted and step-children, and the ensuing gang of grandchildren. It was blatantly obvious that his family was the most important thing in his life. John and I became close enough that we ‘talked about stuff that guys don’t talk about’.

Some of our AHOA BC members met him on one (or more) of the three Vancouver Island tours that we (mostly John) organised over the years. It amazed me just how many people he knew (and who knew him) all the way up the Island from his working days as a Dept. of Fisheries captain - but then that was John - friends all over the place!

And of course, he will always be remembered as the guy who was constantly messing with his wheels on the motel parking lot at the Nelson Meet in 2006. He eventually figured out that if one starts twisting spokes on sealed, tubeless wire wheels, the air will come out. I never was able to stop kidding him about that and of course now it will become a fond memory for me.

Even now, I can see the black BJ8 in front of me tearing up the road, jigging side to side in time with the ’50s - 60’s music that he loved to listen to while driving, with a big smile on his face.

Have a good ride Bumpy - hope it doesn’t rain