John Rote

John Edward Rote Jr. passed away Saturday.

He was born in Lisbon, Ohio on Nov. 9, 1925, to the late John Edward Rote Sr. and Elmira F. Moyer Rote. He was their only child. In 1933, they moved to Chicora.

He attended Butler County schools. He lived in Harrisburg, for a year, working as a messenger at the Middletown Air Depot.

He then spent 30 months in the U.S. Army Air Force, 21 months of which he spent at Assam, India CBI Theatre. After his honorable discharge in 1946, he graduated from Butler High School.

He attended Grove City College, where he received his Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering, from 1947 to 1951. He began work June 11, 1951, at the Ellwood City Works of the U.S. Steel Corp.

On Aug. 9, 1952, he married Nancy Patricia Shepard at Church of the Covenant in Erie. They lived in New Castle for five years where their two children, Katherine and John, were born.

In 1966, he worked as an engineer for the Republic Steel Corp. in Warren, Ohio. He was a member of the Association of Iron and Steel Engineers, the secretary of the Ellwood chapter of the National Management Association, and a member of the Grove City College Alumni Association, where he served as secretary for one two-year term.

In 1968, he joined the Arthur G. McKee & Co. in Cleveland, Ohio, as a senior engineer. He later worked as section supervisor, assistant section manager-reports and specifications. He retired in 1982.

After retiring, they remodeled their century family farmhouse and put the farm back in operation raising sheep. In 2000, he retired completely.

He was a member of Highland United Presbyterian Church in New Castle, Christ Presbyterian Church in Ellwood City, and First Presbyterian Church in Willoughby, Ohio, where he served as a deacon.

He was an avid sportsman who enjoyed hunting and fishing, a member of the National Rifle Association, a member of the Buckeye Big Buck Club of Ohio, and a skilled gunsmith who built muzzle loading rifles.

His survivors include his children, Katherine Elizabeth Rote Turner of Chicora, and John Edward Rote III of Sheffield Village, Ohio; his grandchildren, Tabitha Charissa Turner Myers of New Concord, Ky., Tiffany Nicole Turner of Pewee Valley, Ky., and Erica Faith Turner Mikolaczyk of Butler, and his great-grandchildren, Kristopher Blake Myers, Halo Aurora Criss, Gabriel Clay Criss, Taylor Callista Myers, Kameron Luke Myers, Alexandria Marie Mikolaczyk and Kyler Isaiah Myers.

His parents and his wife preceded him in death.

Rote— The friends of John Edward Rote Jr., who passed away Saturday, March 1, 2014, will be received at Thompson-Miller Funeral Home, 124 E. North St., Butler, from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday.Services will be at the funeral home at 11 a.m. Friday with the Dr. James Swason, pastor of Covent Presbyterian Church, officiating.Interment will follow in North Side Cemetery in Butler. Officers and members of the American Legion Post 778 of Lyndora and the VFW Post 249 will conduct grave side military honors.Memorial contributions may be made to the Disabled American Veterans Chapter 64, P.O. 1728, Butler, PA 16003.Online condolence can be given at www.thompson-miller.com