Birth date: Apr 20, 1933 Death date: Aug 29, 2013
John Francis McGovern, 80, of Ashburn, VA, passed away peacefully on August 29. “Jack” was the beloved husband of MaryJane, father to Charles (Mary), Elissa (Stephen) and John (Susan), grandfather to Tom, Emily, Grace and Nat, and Read Obituary
RIP John Francis McGovern (4/20/33-8/29/13), known as ‘Jack’ to everyone, ‘Jay’ to his wife Mary Jane, ‘Jake’ to my late Uncle Neil, “Mr Jacks” to any number of workmen he supervised over the years, ‘Poppa’ to his 4 grandchildren, ‘Dad’ to my sister Elissa, brother John, and me. 80 years young, he was an exact contemporary of James Brown and Willie Nelson, Susan Sontag and Dom DeLuise, James Meredith and Shari Lewis (who was briefly a schoolmate).
Raised in Queens, he worked in chemical and adhesive factories, managed starch processing facilities, was a foreman for General Foods, and worked as a building/plant manager at Regis High School in Manhattan,long after I graduated. He spent years working in Astoria on Steinway St long before it was hipsterville and when Silvercup was our brand of bread and not a historical landmark. Blue collar management. He had a high school education (he joked that he went to Our Lady of Richmond Hill) and a few college courses. He had babies, too, which meant no real prospect for a night school BA, and he worked two or three jobs as a young dad. He worked hard all his life; he seemed to enjoy it. Never made much money, but fed and clothed and educated his kids. The only reason I can write this for you - folks from many walks of life - is because he believed in me and with my mom, made it possible for me to believe in myself. By any outside metric, an unremarkable life. By mine, he was a great success and an inspiration that will live well beyond his time on this earth.
He was deliberate, reserved, watchful, also fun loving and goofy. He was irreverent though not mean. When he was young he was active in a couple of sports and hobbies. Whenever a firetruck or siren sounded down the street he'd be out the door, lickety split, to see what we going on - the result, he said, of being on the safety squad at work. Yet he wasn't in general a sprinter. His favorite farewell was ‘take it slow.’
Safety: he was hard on himself; from his early days at work, he endured accidents and put his body through more hardship than necessity or prudence demanded. He taught and enforced safety for others, but less for himself. He gave his all, and sometimes he gave too much. Broken ankles, knees, etc., laid him up all too often. Like all kids I thought of my dad as indestructible and immortal. But he showed me through unfortunate example to be careful.
He taught me patience and perseverance, always, always to do my best, even at the least little thing of no consequence. I don’t always live up to that, but even now that lesson is still as strong for me as at age 5. If I live to twice 80 I don’t think I can ever tote up all he taught me, nor locate all the doors he opened; many mansions in my father’s house.
He joked and could be sarcastic, less a cynic than one inclined to question or doubt. He had little use for constituted authority, yet he believed in doing the right thing and he expected institutions and authorities to be honorable, efficient and honest - qualities that he never claimed to possess, but ones that anyone who dealt with him for 5 minutes could see. He didn’t read much, but valued education. He was as organic an intellectual as any I every met - alternately pragmatist and existentialist - he would have snorted at all those terms, and did. He wasn't particularly political; he had little patience for left wing platitudes, but he zero tolerance for what he saw as conservative stupidity and selfishness. I loved him for this.
He was a maker: neither a craftsman nor a technician, he loved to recycle things. Dressers made into toyboxes and tool kits, a washing machine motor repurposed, a drummer practice pad turned into a workbench wedge. The basement always had adhesives, glues and turpentines, cause he got them from work. I knew the word 'toluene' (a solvent) before i knew the countries of europe. He seldom saw a piece of lumber he wouldn’t want to adopt, like a stray kitten. He saw promise - even transformation - in the raw material of the everyday. Recycle: when o
Dear MaryJane & family: Fond memories of our earlier years in Brooklyn and L.I. Saddened to learn of Jack's passing and our wish would be to be there with you at this time. Our love and prayers travel a long way to you and your family. God has blest Jack with peace and he is in His care. He is "glued" to His side.
Love, Deacon Guy & Marie
