John came to Princeton from Kirkwood (Mo.) High School in suburban St. Louis, where he had been student council vice president, class vice president, and class valedictorian.
At Princeton John majored in mathematics. He roomed with Roger Rudolph, Bob Grant, and Dave Paul in 4A Holder Hall. John was an active Elm Club member, the club’s ace pool player and competitor in the inter-club tournaments. He was a member of Whig-Clio, the James Madison Humorous Debating Society, and the Stock Investment and Analysis Club.
After graduation John earned a master’s degree in mathematics in 1970 and a Ph.D. in 1976 from Stanford. He taught math at the University of California, Santa Cruz, from 1975 to 1978, and the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, from 1978 to 1983. Switching careers he moved back to San Francisco, working for a small software-design firm, Versatec Corp., from 1983 to 1986 until Xerox absorbed it. John left for another small firm, Adobe Systems, which grew to become a Silicon Valley giant. He began as a staffer but became the company’s principal scientist responsible for development of software for Adobe’s graphics products. He retired in 2005 and pursued his hobbies, including collecting rare books from the 1930s Los Angeles detective novel genre, especially of Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, and James M. Cain.
John is survived by stepson Jason and stepdaughter Rachel. The Class of ’67 is proud of this technology pioneer, and we are greatly diminished by the loss of a brilliant mathematical innovator and engineer.