John was born in Winchester, Virginia. He was the second of four children in his family and the only boy. Arizona has been his home for nearly 33 years.John has resided in or visited ten foreign countries: Vietnam, Japan, Australia, Cambodia, Germany, Austria, France, Holland, Italy, and the United Kingdom. He is only fluent in English, but can effectively order beer in several languages.
In addition to Arizona, John has resided in Virginia, Georgia, Florida, Kansas and Pennsylvania.
As a boy, John dreamed of becoming an architect. Instead, he spent most of his twenty years serving in the United States Army as a test pilot flying helicopters. After retiring from the Army, he spent twenty-two years as a Project Manager at Boeing.
John is widowed following thirty-nine plus years married to his best friend, Betsy. He has one son, one daughter, four grandsons and one granddaughter.
Favorite vacation memories for John are of time spent in Duck, North Carolina where he says it is wonderful most any time of year.
John has hosted Rotary Group Study Exchange (GSE) and New Generations Service Exchange (NGSE) teams and still keeps up with all of them. One of the GSE teams was from Scotland. John has visited them there and they have come to Arizona a second time and stayed in his home. He has kept up with a NGSE young man who is now the Rotaract Director for his District in Brazil.
Some of the most rewarding service projects for John involved painting and yard cleanup, which had a direct positive impact on those that were helped.