At Princeton, John was a member of Quadrangle Club, president of the Cleveland Club, won letters as a varsity baseball player, and majored in basic engineering. His thesis was on the development of the International Paper Co., which (after three years as an Air Force officer) he joined. He spent 30 years managing paper mills all over this country and Canada.
John’s wife of 66 years, Joy Johnson Nevin, wrote a book on the lessons learned by the young family of five after frequent and untimely moves as John climbed the IP corporate ladder. After early retirement in 1990, John took senior management positions at James River and Fieldcrest Cannon. At final retirement at age 62, John and Joy settled near Richmond, Va., where he was a member of the Richmond Symphony Board, the Kinloch Golf Club, the Commonwealth Club, and a lay leader of Presbyterian churches they attended.
John summed up his ethos on life in a recent class yearbook with these words: “I was richly blessed to have lived in a time when our generation was taught the value of integrity, honor, and hard work.”
He is survived by Joy, four children, nine grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.