John passed peacefully from this life into the next at home on February 8, 2007 at 10:30 pm. He was born at the National Homeopathic Hospital in Washington DC on December 12, 1947. He grew up with his loving step father, Burt, who was a Marine serving as a combat photographer in four wars, and his mother Eileen who worked many years at the Pentagon. The "best year of his life" was the junior high school year spent in Gorham, NH with his grandparents. While his heart was in the NH White Mountains, he and his parents traveled the country and to Japan, where he spent his high school years. He joined the Air Force when he graduated from high school and served in Vietnam. John worked for the USPS in Portland, Maine.
He studied geology and cartography at the University of Southern Maine and George Washington University. He loved reading and learning. He rode motorcycles, drove tractor trailers, did carpentry and showed dairy goats, while always enjoying the company of good friends. He was an avid outdoorsman and enjoyed whitewater kayaking, camping, mountain biking, x-country, teli and downhill skiing and snowboarding. John tried everything he could at least once including aikido and rock climbing at White Horse Ledge. John loved animals, learning to play many instruments, and sharing those instruments with friends. He especially loved living on the river and kayaking all over the country with his friends in the Mount Washington Valley Paddlers Club and Merrimack Valley Paddlers Club.
John is loved by his wife and kayak partner, Brenda, his daughter Kathryn Noelle, his stepson Jeremiah, stepdaughter Hannah, his best friend Nancy and many other special and wonderful friends who will miss this kindhearted, loving, and generous soul. His wish for all the people he loved is to "feel the freedom of living, loving and playing hard. This life is short and must be enjoyed daily."
A prayer circle for John will be held by the river at his home on Sat. Feb.10, at noon. .
A of celebration of John's life and dedication of the "Emerson Put In at Limington Rips" will be held on May 20 2007 at 4pm. There will be a potluck dinner after the ceremony.
There will also be a memorial paddle at Northern Waters Campground in Errol on Memorial day weekend and on July 1 on the Dead River. Arrangements will be announced at a later date.
A mass will be said for John on March 4, 2007 at
Holy Family Church 5 Church Street, Gorham, NH 03581 Telephone # 603-466-2335
Donations can be made in lieu of flowers to MWVP to encourage water safety, river cleanup and river access. www.mtwashingtonvalleypaddlers.org
The only continuity possible in life, is love, growth, fluidity and freedom, as rivers are free, changing with every season, always flowing and creating a better path for itself.
Dreams of Peace on the Gentle River
Once again, we push our kayak
from the shady shore
of the green River
and feel the heart lighten
at the delicate bounce of buoyancy,
the first dip of the paddle,
the magical glide out
to the deep middle current,
the sweet lap and whisper of water
along the shell of our slender hull,
the beginning of our gentle river float....
This first soft movement upon the stream
seems always new,
no matter how often we go,
and so does every eddy,
every shoal and bend,
each sparkling riffle of dancing waves
along our quiet way.
The trees and shaded banks slide by,
and for these few hours
suspended beneath the sky,
time and life itself
become a liquid dream.
