John is survived by his wife Gerri and his six children: Wendy, Daniel, Whitney, Hillary, Candice, and Lindsey.

As a devout member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he served a proselyting mission in the New England States Mission in 1959-60 and subsequently served in administrative and service positions, including Bishopric, High Council, Stake Historian, Stake Sunday School President, Family History Service Missionary, and San Antonio Temple Ordinance Worker.

He earned a B.S. in Chemistry in 1962 and a Bachelor of Engineering Science in Chemical Engineering in 1963 at BYU and a Ph.D. degree in Chemical Engineering at Purdue University in 1967. His career was with the petrochemical industry and consultancies, serving this industry by specializing in computer control of units and risk analysis that included incident investigation of chemical explosions.

In his career, he published all or parts of eight technical books, 27 peer-reviewed, technical papers and 18 papers at symposia and conferences. The fields addressed in his literature include computer-control of petrochemical plants, risk analysis of accidental discharges, modeling aerosol drop sizes, evaporation, and rain-out. His last book treats risks posed by liquified natural gas (LNG). His work continues to be cited by other researchers.

He had a true zest for life and is sorely missed by all who loved him.