MELBOURNE, Fla. – John was born on June 14, 1935 in Boston, Mass., the second child of William Bain Cormack of Wick, Scotland and Genevieve Elizabeth Cunningham Cormack of Quincy, Mass.

He was raised in Cienfuegos and Guantánamo, Cuba, first on a botanical garden and later on a sugar plantation. His mother home-schooled him, as well as his brother and sister, through the 8th grade; whereupon each child attended secondary boarding preparatory schools in the United States. His 9th grade was taken at Moses Brown School, Providence, R.I., and the next three years were spent at Lawrence Academy, Groton, Mass.

After graduation, he entered Harvard College class of 1956, where he majored in Romance Languages and Literature. He then completed six years of compulsory active and reserve military duty in the U.S. Army.

He undertook two years of post-graduate study of biology, chemistry, anatomy, and cardiovascular physiology, before entering the profession of Clinical Cardiovascular Perfusion. It was his vocation for 43 years, first at the Lahey Clinic in Boston, Mass. then at Maine Medical Center in Portland, before retiring in 2005.

He married Dale Virginia Anderton on March 30, 1963 in Needham, Mass. and they raised three children, Bruce, born in 1964, Pamela, born in 1966, and Neil, born in 1970. The family lived in Needham, Mass. until 1984, and subsequently moved to Gorham. In 2007, John and Dale moved to Old Orchard Beach, then in 2014 they moved to Melbourne, Fla.

He is survived by his wife of 61 years; two granddaughters, Emma and Maria; and his three children.

John’s leisure pursuit was choral singing. From 1992 he sang with the Portland Community Chorus and in 2007 also joined the choir of the First Parish Church, UCC in Saco.