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- Bio: John Gerald Valder, 82When a friend of John’s was asked to describe him, she replied, “He was a gentle gentleman with a warm smile and a twinkle in his eye. He had a kind word for and about everyone” And his high school friends totally agreed with her. John Gerald Valder was born February 12, 1936, in Tekamah, Nebraska, the son of Gerald Clarence and Ann Sedlacek Valder. John grew up in the Lyons area, attending country school and coming into Lyons at the beginning of his 7th grade where he attended Lyons Public School and became an active member of the Presbyterian Church. John was active in high school in a variety of activities and there earned the nickname of Stal which his Lyons friends still use today. On weekends his friends would find Stal out hunting with his friend Bob Block on their family farms.After graduating from Lyons High School in 1953 as salutatorian, John attended McCook Junior College for a year and then transferred to the University of Nebraska where he graduated in 1958. Following graduation, John moved to California where he began his career as a teacher in the Anaheim Union School District. After a couple of years he went into guidance counseling and finished his career at Loara High School where he served on various committees and was involved in the counseling training program on the local, state and national level.While in California John attended University of California, Irvine; California State Universities at Long Beach and Fullerton, Pepperdine University and Chapman University where he earned his master’s degree.In 1972 John was married to Sylvia W. Knappenberg and they divorced in 1980. He continued to stay in contact with Sylvia’s daughters throughout his life and was very fond of them..In his leisure time, John was an active member of the Anaheim Kiwanis Club scholarship program and did a variety of community volunteer projects. His favorite leisure time was spent fishing but when the lakes became too crowded to suit him, he spent his leisure time reading and enjoying research on the computer. Genealogy showed his roots going back to thevery early days in Norway.When John’s mother’s heath deteriorated following his father’s death, John moved his mother to his home in California where he cared for her until her death. When her care became difficult, John hired Evelyn Abueva to help. Following Ann’s death, Evelyn stayed on to assist John whose own health was deteriorating and Evelyn and her family became like a family to John. He became actively involved in the Filipino community and spent many happy hours attending events and hosting their family gatherings in his home. His “adopted” family referred to him as Sir John and the pictures posted showed a man happy in his new role.Though John spent the better part of his life in California he never forgot his Nebraska roots and was an avid Nebraska Husker fan and loved to come back to Nebraska to check on his farm near Tekamah where his family had roots. He often joked that he would move back to Nebraska except for three things–December January, and February.John passed away on January 14, 2019 following a short illness.. He leaves to mourn his passing cousins, many friends in the Filipino community, his Abueva family, and a host of friends both in California and Nebraska. He will be buried in the Tekamah cemetery later this year.Published in the Lyons (Neb.) Mirror-Sun, Mar. 3, 2019.
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1936 - 2019 (82 år)
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