John and I didn't have a lot in common at PHS except for football. I'm sure all the guys remember coach Muenter's saw dust pits. One day during practice, blocking for a double team was emphasized. As an offensive lineman John was pretty good about taking my inside leg while another offensive lineman rolled me over from the opposite angle. I was pretty mad about getting consistenly beaten and asked John and Denny Mulloy to stay a bit longer to help me with technique. They agreed, and proceeded to keep beating me After about 20 tries, John looked at me and told me I'd had enough. He was right. I only saw John once after graduation. It was after the 20th reunion and we met during a delayed flight back to LA. John was attending a meeting while I was going back to UCLA. I asked John what he was up to and found out that he was the president at Rhodes & Jamison. ( I, at the time, was struggling to achieve tenure.) That impressed the hell out of me. I was saddened to hear of his passing.
I'll never forget a day we spent, John, Trip Umphred, someone else long forgotten and me at John's dad's "Duck Club". We were out in a power boat with way too much beer for four teenagers cruising the maze of waterways lined with tall reeds and other marshy stuff. Trip was water skiing and the other 3 of us were engaged in conversation no doubt about girls. We looked back down this long, narrow waterway and no Trip in sight! It was really a panic situation because we had taken several turns by then and trying to figure out where we had been, especially given our tipsy state, would be guesswork at best. I remember we spent at least 15 or 20 minutes before we found him. It wasn't funny but we laughed anyway probably out of relief. Trip was so mad at all of us that John wouldn't let him in the boat for at least another 20 minutes. We just made lazy circles around him until John, who knew him best, felt he had calmned down enough to join us.
Another less pleasant memory of John was at our 20th reunion. I hadn't seen him in all those 20 years. My hair was long and my beard and moustache were too. John came up to me, I put out my hand to shake his and he, instead, took his thumb and forefinger, grabbed the end of my moustache, gave this little painful tug and said "What's this shit". I said something like "Nice to see you too asshole"...so we were off to a real good start. The next day at the picnic we had a chance to talk and he brought up his sister who had just died or had gotten a terminal diagnosis, something bad, and he really showed his softer side. We were able to settle into the kind of friendship we had at PHS. It was interesting to see both sides of him that weekend 30 years ago. Al
Jim Packwood
John and I didn't have a lot in common at PHS except for football. I'm sure all the guys remember coach Muenter's saw dust pits. One day during practice, blocking for a double team was emphasized. As an offensive lineman John was pretty good about taking my inside leg while another offensive lineman rolled me over from the opposite angle. I was pretty mad about getting consistenly beaten and asked John and Denny Mulloy to stay a bit longer to help me with technique. They agreed, and proceeded to keep beating me After about 20 tries, John looked at me and told me I'd had enough. He was right. I only saw John once after graduation. It was after the 20th reunion and we met during a delayed flight back to LA. John was attending a meeting while I was going back to UCLA. I asked John what he was up to and found out that he was the president at Rhodes & Jamison. ( I, at the time, was struggling to achieve tenure.) That impressed the hell out of me. I was saddened to hear of his passing.
Al Forster
I'll never forget a day we spent, John, Trip Umphred, someone else long forgotten and me at John's dad's "Duck Club". We were out in a power boat with way too much beer for four teenagers cruising the maze of waterways lined with tall reeds and other marshy stuff. Trip was water skiing and the other 3 of us were engaged in conversation no doubt about girls. We looked back down this long, narrow waterway and no Trip in sight! It was really a panic situation because we had taken several turns by then and trying to figure out where we had been, especially given our tipsy state, would be guesswork at best. I remember we spent at least 15 or 20 minutes before we found him. It wasn't funny but we laughed anyway probably out of relief. Trip was so mad at all of us that John wouldn't let him in the boat for at least another 20 minutes. We just made lazy circles around him until John, who knew him best, felt he had calmned down enough to join us.
Another less pleasant memory of John was at our 20th reunion. I hadn't seen him in all those 20 years. My hair was long and my beard and moustache were too. John came up to me, I put out my hand to shake his and he, instead, took his thumb and forefinger, grabbed the end of my moustache, gave this little painful tug and said "What's this shit". I said something like "Nice to see you too asshole"...so we were off to a real good start. The next day at the picnic we had a chance to talk and he brought up his sister who had just died or had gotten a terminal diagnosis, something bad, and he really showed his softer side. We were able to settle into the kind of friendship we had at PHS. It was interesting to see both sides of him that weekend 30 years ago. Al