KEENE VALLEY — John Parker Runyon, died Feb. 16, 2013, at the Horace Nye Home in Elizabethtown, N.Y. He was born Sept. 8, 1922, in Baltimore, Md., to Margaret Ellinger Runyon and Howard Judson Runyon Jr.
He grew up in Plainfield, N.J., graduated from the Middlesex School, in Concord, Mass., and earned a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering at the Stevens Institute of Technology. While at Stevens he was inducted into the engineering honor society Tau Beta Pi. Upon graduating, in 1944, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy. He was posted to the Pacific and served until the war's end as a lieutenant, junior grade, on the U.S.S. Reed Victory.
He married Honor Case, of Morristown, N.J., in 1947. The couple honeymooned in the Adirondacks and moved to Zurich, Switzerland, where John spent three years earning an advanced diploma in mathematics at the Eidgen^ssische Technische Hochschule ("ETH"), the Swiss federal technical institute. Upon the couple's return to the U.S., in 1950, he joined Bell Telephone Laboratories. He stayed at Bell Labs for more than 20 years and retired as head of the Transmission and Switching department. He was a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
An avid racing and cruising sailor for most of his life, he was a member and master of the Corinthians and a member and commodore of the North Shrewsbury Ice Boat and Yacht Club. He sang in the Masterwork Chorus, in Morristown, N.J.; the Shrewsbury Chorale, in Shrewsbury, N.J.; and the Bamboo Butlers, a barbershop group based in Rumson, N.J.
The Runyons moved to Keene Valley, N.Y., in 1990. There John served on the board of the Keene Valley Library, sang in the choir at the Keene Valley Congregational Church, and played tuba in a mixed school/community brass band.
Honor Case Runyon died in 2008.
John is survived by the couple's five children, Anne R. Hurd of Keene Valley, N.Y., Peter B. Runyon of Marietta, Ga., Polly Runyon Wittrock of New York, N.Y., Howard C. Runyon of Lake Placid, N.Y., and Charles B. Runyon of Wilmington, N.Y.; and eight grandchildren.
A memorial service will be celebrated 10 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013 at Keene Valley Congregational Church in Keene Valley. Burial will be at a later date and at the convenience of the family.
Arrangements have been entrusted to Heald Funeral Home, 48 Court Street, Plattsburgh.
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