Obituary of John William Anderson

John William Anderson After 93 years and 10 months on earth, Jack Anderson left us to finally rejoin his sweet wife Joan on January 31st, 2021. John William Anderson is the name he was given when he was born on his grandparents farm in Riverdale, Utah in 1927. Jack grew up in Grantsville, a small town on the edge of Utah’s west desert, the place where his Swedish ancestors settled in the 1860’s. There he lived the rural life of a depression-era only-child, and retains fond memories of simple amusements and the good people he grew up with. In his last years, Jack would often mention “the good old days”, which he said were the 1940’s and 1950’s. Those were the years when he and his best friends graduated High School and skipped the ceremony to enlist in the Navy and join WWII in the Pacific. Those were the years he had a passion for hot rods, or really anything with four wheels. He loved red cars, hated green ones. Those were the years he went to the U of U and USU on the GI Bill to graduate with a BS in Automotive Technology. Those were the years he met and married Joan Catten and started a family. Those were the years he left Utah for Seattle when he was hired by Boeing Airplane Company. And those were the years he could finally afford to build a new house, buy a new car, get a dog, and a piano for Joan. Eventually, Jack and Joan raised four sons, with a twelve-year gap between #2 and #3, in a comfortable suburban setting south of Seattle near Three Tree Point. With the extended family in Utah, there were always wonderful visits from family members and frequent travel between the two locations. Jack began working at Boeing in 1951 and retired from there nearly 40 years later. In between there were plenty of ups and downs since periodic layoffs were part of the experience of every Boeing engineer. He started out designing gas turbine engines and gear transmissions, and progressed to leading propulsion teams specializing in mating various jet engines to various airplane wings. This was before the computer age when complex calculations were done with the use of the slide rules that every engineer carried in his pocket. Having retired from Boeing and being tired of King County traffic, Jack built a new home on the shoreline of Hammersley Inlet in Mason County and considered it to be the best place on earth. He enjoyed his neighbors and loved helping them with their projects, especially if there was any way it could be done with his Kubota. Sadly, Joan’s health began to decline soon after his retirement, and as her illness progressed over many years Jack became the most attentive and patient of caregivers until she left us in 2003. Jack lived alone for the next 17 years while being looked after by kind neighbors and friends. He took guitar lessons, hosted family visits, and went on 4-wheeler trips to Idaho. At age 90 he moved into an apartment at Maple Glen Assisted Living and enjoyed the advantages of living there for the last three years. Jack was preceded in death by his parents, Haydn and Iris Anderson; wife, Joan Anderson; sisters Marilyn and Sheryl Anderson; granddaughter, Allison Anderson; and grandson, Conlan Anderson. He is survived by his sons Craig (Lucy), Joe, Jared (Tina), and Jeff (Rachel); 11 grandchildren, and 8 great-grandchildren.