Memoir and Obituary
John C. Webb was born Sept. 13, 1947, in Niskayuna, New York. His father was an engineer for General Electric and in 1954 was sent to Japan to help rebuild after WWII. John had two brothers, and a sister was born there.
Obituaries
Memoir and Obituary
by Linda Webb–Paradise Valley
c As an adult, he mentioned how impressed he was by the completely different culture. He had a strong recall of several times visiting one of Japan’s well-known giant Buddha statues. He liked the fish markets; was offered what looked like a cookie and would be sweet, but wasn’t. He said, Blah!
After returning to the States, they bought their own home in Manlius, near Syracuse, New York, with a convenient high school nearby for him and his siblings. The family often went camping. He had a lifelong love of Nature. In his teens, he became a promising gymnast at Olympic level, but life had other plans for him. Early on, he taught high school in New Jersey which he called “mainly babysitting.” After being called into service in Vietnam, he went for his Masters in Math and later a Masters in Computer Science, which he taught for many years.
Long before me, he had moved to California, and joined a church there. He also learned about herbs, and gathered them for fun and food; learned to cook from the ladies; all who rented together in a big ranch house. He taught the children and assisted in childcare there for 10 years.
He then moved to Twin Cities, Minnesota, where we met and married in 1994. One day he was inspired to call Brown College and as an answer to a prayer—got hired on the spot. He was asked to bring in his credentials on the following Monday. He taught computer programming there, and later other schools including Sylvan Remedial, and online tutoring from home, including Chinese students in Ningbo, China.
In 2015, we moved to the famous small town in Montana, where you could walk or bike everywhere, “and a river runs through it.” We lived on 9th Street close to Sacajawea Park where we walked almost daily, or pulled small hand carts to shop at Town and Country. After as short time in an apt. on Park Street, the opportunity came to rent an apartment at the pond in Emigrant, in January of 2021. We moved once more to the peaceful, friendly little town of Emigrant in the heart of Paradise Valley.
John had endured several years of declining health diagnosed as Parkinson as well as signs of ALS. He spent the last 6 months in home hospice under my care. Neighbors sang to him for his 77th birthday this year but he could not respond.
It was extremely windy the night of January 10, 2025. I could hear the walls seemingly bend and shiver in the wind. John was in labored breathing and I went to lie next to him to comfort him. I fell asleep and later woke to quiet stillness. NO WIND. It was 1 am, January 11, 2025. My beloved soulmate, John C. Webb, had gone Home peacefully, perhaps, I thought, with the winds of The Holy Spirit.