At Wicomico (Md.) High School he was active in publications and dramatics and was a sports manager. At Princeton, he majored in psychology, joined Tower Club, and was active in the Campus Fund Drive and Orange Key.
After two years in the Army, he moved to New York, where he met nursing student Ellen Sutphen Cramer in 1961 and they married in 1962.
John’s 38-year career in banking began in 1957 as an officer in the personnel department at The Bank of New York in Manhattan and continued at National City Bank in Cleveland, where John was SVP/division head of human resources.
He and Ellen enjoyed memberships in various sports clubs and were active volunteers on boards and in church vestries in Ohio and Cotuit, Mass., where they moved after retiring in 1994.
An avid reader, John was a regular at the Cotuit Library, and he completed The New York Times crossword puzzle in pen every day. John was impressively versatile. He was a keen bridge player and skilled at gardening, landscaping, flower-arranging, watercolor painting, and building model ships. Family and friends remember him as a masterful chef, consummate host, conversationalist, and a true gentleman.
John was predeceased in 2017 by his wife of 55 years, Ellen. He is survived by their son Eskridge and his wife Lucy; daughter Elizabeth and her husband Jorma Osteen; and grandchildren Jennevieve and Lillie Culver, and Shiva and Ocean Osteen.