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.