John Kostigian had many successes in life as a business owner and community builder, but he always considered his greatest achievement to be the 30 years he spent as Leisure Lodge's house band leader.
"A lot of people didn't know he had a business, that he was just a band leader," said his son Jason Kostigian, who has operated Galt Display Rack since his dad retired a decade ago.
Leisure Lodge was a popular Cambridge nightclub that ran from 1948 until the place suspiciously burned to the ground in 1980. People came from far and wide to dance the night away to the swinging sounds of the Johnny Kostigian Orchestra.
At its peak, the 13-piece band would play Friday and Saturday nights to an audience of 1,100 patrons, many who had travelled from across the province to this hot spot.
"There was nothing like it around, it had class," Johnny once told The Record. "Leisure Lodge put Preston on the map."
The self-taught trumpet, saxophone player and band leader loved every moment of performing to an appreciative audience and playing with such talented musicians. Then a beautiful lead vocalist from Hamilton named Joan Case was introduced to the band as a possible lead vocalist.
"Dad was looking for a singer and ended up with a wife," said Jason of how his parents met, then married in 1954.
Jason said his mom was so good she could have enjoyed a professional career beyond Leisure Lodge, but she chose to stay and raise a family with John. Jason and his sisters Carrie and Holly were never short of their father's attentions even though he was an exceptionally busy guy. The band even had is own television show from 1957 to 1958, "Sunday Serenade" on CKCO in Kitchener.
John was born one of three to parents who came first to Owen Sound and later Cambridge from Armenia. Though John never wanted to visit his parent's homeland — too much pain associated with the reason the family had to flee — he always supported the Armenian community. Historians estimate the Ottoman Empire killed 1.5 million Armenians during the First World War and this legacy carried over into Canada and into the lives of people like John.
Life was not easy for the immigrant family and John shone shoes as a boy to help out. He he had to leave high school in Grade 10, working a variety of odd jobs including playing trumpet in local bands.