John D. Velte ’49

John died June 6, 2015. He was the son of F.M. Velte 1915 and had many Princeton relatives.

His parents were Presbyterian missionaries, and John was born in Lahore, India (now Pakistan). The family returned to the United States when John was 10, and he attended Sidwell Friends School and Lexington (Va.) High School. John enlisted in the Navy in 1944, was discharged in June 1946, then transferred to Princeton after one term at Virginia Military Institute, where he joined the Class of 1949 and graduated in January 1950. His major was mechanical engineering, and he was a member of Court Club.

John married Evangeline “Van” Feiler in 1950 and they had four children, two of whom predeceased John. Van died of cancer in 1991 and John later married Mary Louise Bell, a widow with one daughter. They built a new home next to John’s longtime summer home on Lake George, N.Y. After his retirement they spent half the year there, and the other half in Osprey, Fla.

The bulk of John’s career was with Ford Motor Co., ending as chief chassis engineer. His hobbies were photography and boating. Our condolences go to Mary Louise and surviving children Carolyn Berthelsen, John Velte, and Lynda Mette.