Deacon moved to
Prince Edward Island in 1981, where he was the founder and chair of Atlantic Canada's first venture capital fund, Atlantic Ventures Trust. He also continued his passion as an active volunteer, becoming president of the PEI
Red Cross, chair of the
Atlantic Provinces Economic Council, a board member of
Mount Allison University (the alma mater of his maternal grandfather, The Hon.
Henry Emmerson), a director of the SmartRisk Foundation and National Commissioner of
Scouts Canada. Deacon was deeply honoured when his service to Scouts Canada was recognized with his being presented with the
Silver Wolf Award by
Queen Elizabeth II at a ceremony at Buckingham Palace. Deacon's greatest passion grew from
CN Railway's decision to close the
Prince Edward Island Railway in July 1989. Florence and Donald loved going on walking and cycling vacations around the world, and had long felt that the closure would hold great tourism and community development potential. A standing-room only community meeting on August 3, 1989, led to the creation of
Rail-to-Trails PEI with its mission being to do what was necessary to convert the soon to be abandoned rail lines into a provincial trail system. Deacon became the group's founding chairman. On September 18, 1992, at a Canada 125 board meeting held in Summerside PEI, a resolution was passed to support the creation of the Trans Canada Trail as the legacy project for Canada's 125th anniversary. Deacon became an early and active member of the
Trans Canada Trail board of directors, focusing much of his attention on the all-important fundraising efforts. To this end, Deacon's signature can be found on the certificates issued to Canadians who donated $35.00 to "buy a metre" of the Trail, one of the Trail's earliest fundraising efforts. Through the 1990s, corporations and wealthy families across the country could count on a visit from Deacon and others, encouraging them to "buy a kilometre" of the Trail. In 2000, then in their 80s, Florence and Donald proudly completed their Millennium Project: to bike 200 km on the Trail in each of Canada's provinces and territories (except Nunavut), making it as far north as
Tuktoyaktuk. In 1987, Deacon was invested as a Member of the
Order of Canada. In 2003, he was presented with the
Order of Prince Edward Island and was promoted to Officer of the
Order of Canada. Exactly one week prior to his death in September 2003, Deacon was interviewed by
Shelagh Rogers on CBC Radio's
Sounds Like Canada. It was her first interview in a series about Order of Canada recipients. This moving conversation, which Rogers often replayed as one of her favorites, included Deacon recounting a defining moment with a close friend in the final hours of World War II. Deacon and his friend were sitting on top of their Scout cars, waiting as the infantry cleared out a machine gun nest along the road ahead. They asked one another how the horrible waste of life that they had just survived could be prevented in future. The two men agreed that all they could do was to go home, raise a family of caring individuals, contribute to the lives of others in their communities, and encourage everyone they met to travel the world so they could experience and gain respect for other cultures and people. Their conversation ended as they were given the all clear. His friend started his
Scout car, proceeded down the road ahead of Deacon and was killed instantly as his vehicle passed over an anti-tank mine. The war ended two days later. Deacon carried that conversation and commitment with him throughout his life. Deacon died of leukemia at a hospital in
Charlottetown in September 2003. He was 83. == References ==