John Edgar Hicks, chartered accountant, was born circa 1914. He attended Lakefield Preparatory School and Upper Canada College and as a teenager worked as a caddy in Jasper, Alberta. He attended the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario until 1941. He worked for the Bank of Montreal, 1931-1932, and for Welch Anderson, Chartered Accountants, 1932-1939, before working for Tropical Oil Company in Colombia, 1939-1941. He developed an interest in aviation, joining the RCAF. He married Catherine (Kiki) Bethune. They had eleven children. He died in 1999 in Chemainus, British Columbia.