News

By Steven J. Smith

    By all accounts, John Bitove Sr. led an exceedingly rich and productive life, but according to his son, John Jr., he will be most remembered for his optimism.
    “He saw opportunity in everything,” Bitove Jr. said. “When someone would say a situation was hopeless, he’d convince them why it was not. If someone would say they couldn’t help with a given project, he’d tell them what they could do. That’s why he took up so many community efforts. When people came to him for help, he’d take it upon himself to find a way to help them.”
    Bitove Sr., who had a home in Boca Raton, died on July 30 in Toronto at age 87.
    He was born on March 19, 1928, to Macedonian immigrants in Toronto, where he grew up. He dropped out of school in the eighth grade to work in his father’s butcher shop.
    Using his intelligence, positive attitude and work ethic, Bitove went on to obtain the catering rights to Toronto’s SkyDome (now known as the Rogers Centre) and Toronto’s Pearson Airport. He later merged existing companies into Bitove Corp., which grew to become one of the largest dining and catering companies in Canada.
    His business achievements, paired with his commitment to giving back to his community, prompted the Canadian government to make Bitove a member of the Order of Canada in 1989.
    “It’s the Canadian equivalent to the Presidential Medal of Freedom,” Bitove Jr. said. “It’s the highest honor a civilian can get in Canada. Aside from his business achievements, he had done lots of community work, like building an old-age home for Canadians of Macedonian descent.
    “He also started ProAction Cops and Kids, which has gone on to raise millions of dollars funding police-run youth athletic programs across the country to keep kids from troubled areas on the field instead of on the street.”
    Bitove married Dotsa Lazoff, an American-Macedonian, in 1949. The couple spent 67 years together and had five children — Vonna, Nick, Tom, John Jr. and Jordan — and 16 grandchildren, to whom he was devoted.
    He never forgot Macedonia and its people, however, and in 1991 Bitove led an international campaign to have the country recognized as an independent state. For that, he received the September 8th Medal of Honor, the highest merit from the president of the Republic of Macedonia.
    “Sept. 8, 1991, was the date Macedonia became an independent country,” Bitove Jr. said. “My father had been involved in coordinating with the U.S. government, the Canadian government and the British government in achieving this, without having any bullets fired.”
    Family was most important to his father, he added. Bitove built family compounds in Canada’s lake country and Boca Raton.
    “He loved watching the grandchildren and he loved to golf,” Bitove Jr. said. “My parents bought a home in Boca Raton in 1957, when he was in his 20s. Every winter they would go back for extended periods. They were members of Royal Palm Yacht and Country Club in Boca and would stay in Florida from Thanksgiving to Easter. Golfing, family and charity work was what he did the last 59 years of his life. He loved the relaxed attitude of the people in Florida, the variety of the restaurants and the shopping. It was their second home.”
    When Dotsa acquired Alzheimer’s disease, Bitove was inspired by the work of the Louis and Anne Green Memory and Wellness Center in Boca Raton to found the Dotsa Bitove Wellness Academy in Toronto.
    “He preached to everyone about the importance of a facility like this, that keeps families together and keeps patients home as opposed to the old-school mentality, which is just parking them in a home until they wither away,” Bitove Jr. said.
    Bitove Sr. died peacefully, his son said. “It was just old age,” he said. “His mind was fine, but his body was breaking down with infections. Over the last seven or eight months it just wore him down.”
    Bitove Jr. added that his father was a constant wellspring of positive energy.
    “He was always a person who cheered you up and got you focused on what had to be done,” he said. “He had a tremendous can-do spirit. It’s something I miss now in my life, but will always remember him by, in terms of how to keep going. And so will many other people.”
    In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations go to the Dotsa Bitove Wellness Academy, ProAction Cops and Kids and Canadian Macedonian Place Foundation — all organizations founded by John Bitove Sr.