Deceased November 25, 2015
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In Memory
John died peacefully on Nov. 25, 2015, at the age of 87. He was born on July 15, 1928, in Madison, Wis., and went to the West Side High School before going to Philips Exeter Academy in Exeter, N.H.
At Amherst he was an active member of Delta Upsilon and played on the lacrosse team. He began dating Anne Learoyd, who was at Mount Holyoke, and they were married in 1951. Anne and John had three sons: Jonathan (wife Tanya), Robert (wife Aude) and David (wife Janet); eight grandchildren: Matthew, Geoffroy, Anne, Adelaide, Jean-Charles, Katherine, Morgan and Conner; and two great-granddaughters, Eleonore and Josephine, all of whom referred to John as “Grandpa, Sir.”
John worked for 30 years at Sears, Roebuck & Co. in Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois and Indiana and in 1980 joined the retail division of W. R. Grace & Co., where he served as executive vice president until 1983, when he joined Herman’s World of Sporting Goods. There he became vice chairman after serving as president and CEO.
In 1989 he retired to Punta Gorda, Fla., where he renounced wearing socks and continued his lifelong passion for sailboat racing and cruising. John and Anne were active members of the Isles Yacht Club in Punta Gorda. They cruised the Gulf of Mexico, the Bahamas and as far away as Tonga in the western South Pacific during the ensuing 30 years.
In John’s submission to our 50th anniversary album, he reminisces: “remember the great times we had at Amherst in the late ’40s—the mixing of the World War II vets with us innocent 18-year-olds” and “the good times at the DKE and DU houses on the weekends but, most lasting and important, the wonderful lifelong friends we all made.”
So true, John.
Dave Sinclair ’50