John Stager Shirk ’39

Johnny had forged a second career as a civic leader while managing two family farms. After graduate work at the University of Chicago, he served four years in the Navy as a flight instructor and transport pilot in both the Pacific and Atlantic theaters. He retired in 1968 from sales and management at Daffin Mobile Products of Lancaster, and took over management of Lantoga Farms, to which he and his wife, Katherine, moved, and which had been in the Shirk family for 200 years. He also managed an adjacent farm in Upper Leacock Township.

Johnny served as president of the Mannheim Board of Commissioners, was chairman of the Lancaster Area Refuse Authority, and was a member of the Lancaster Area Sewer Authority and the Lancaster County Planning Commission. He pursued his passion for history and genealogy as an active member of the Pennsylvania Society of Sons of the Revolution, Lancaster County Historical Society, and the Mennonite Historical Society.

Johnny’s first wife, Mary, died in 1982. He is survived by his wife of 24 years, Katherine Knipe, and his four children, John O. ’65, Arthur O., Marolyn Davenport, and Mary Blakinger; four stepchildren; six grandchildren; and eight step-grandchildren. We offer them our sincere sympathies.