Continued

John invested himself in others and he was accessible. People were always asking his opinion, whether it was wine industry questions or family matters. He had an air of authority about him that made what he said seem like gospel truth. It may have been a combination of his size and loud voice along with a wisdom born of deep thinking and life experience. Wherever it came from, his father Sparky was under it's spell like everyone else. During his rare visits to the East Coast, a mere suggestion from John would spur Sparky to action. His siblings remember their dad dragging his feet for fifteen years about getting a computer for their business. John said, "You ought to get a computer" and the next day they had a computer. He'd say, "You ought to get a boat," and the next thing you know, Sparky ordered a Porta-boat off the Internet. Which may not have been the best idea in the world, since it had to be completely assembled before every outing.

Nonetheless, everyone respected John's intellect. He loved to think and have philosophical discussions. Despite his Master's Degree, he didn't think he'd ever be finished with college because he enjoyed studying so much. He was a voracious consumer of NPR and Time Magazine and science fiction books. Every topic under the sun interested him, whether it had any commercial value or not. Ideas were the food for his soul. And that's how he approached his relationship with God too. The pat answers of the TV evangelists were not for him. He distrusted easy answers to the complex questions of faith. He shunned religion that took the mystery out of faith in God. John preferred to relate to God by contemplating the vastness and inexplicability of God's nature, both in Scripture and in the world around him. He was a philosopher who never stopped questioning or probing.