Robert Biddle

John and I were best friends from kindergarden at Portage Park.  We stayed in touch through the years and got to see him and Patti for dinner the week of the reunion.  John fought a good fight in battling his kidney problems.  Three days a week for several hours a day he would be at the Dialysis Center.  I was so happy when he got the call that they had a kidney for him.  Just to be more than disapponted to hear that his body couldn't make it through the healing process.

I texted with John after the transplant and he was very upbeat.  Looking forward to using the time he wasn't at the Dialysis Center to travel the US with Patti!

I will continue to pray for Patti and the family.  John will always be remembered!!

Edward Weyna

May John find eternal peace. My condolences to your family,

Bill Sluka

Enjoyed visiting with John during our 50th reunion. He was humble,

positive, and cheerful,  just like our days at Schurz. John was a family

man, honor student, excellent athlete, and a true patriot. Rest in peace,

John. We will miss you.

Bill Sluka 

Bruce Wallace

I have great memories of our years at Schurz including the many catches I made delivered from one of the greatest HS quarterbacks.  Sandy and I also remember double dating with John and Candy C.   

Our most sincere condolences to all of John’s family, I know you will be greatly missed.

Thomas Smith

To Patti and family,

The last image I have of Captain John is an IPhone picture in his room with Patti and the nurses leaving to recover. John was wearing his Merchant Marine Academy T-shirt as always.  I write this with a heavy heart knowing that John is gone. My memories of Nr11 as he often referred to himself are of his strong character and how he always faced life with courage and tenacity not often found in people. His tolerance of dialysis and his will to have as normal a life was just one example of his extraordinary will and discipline to carry on in the face of extreme adversity.

Nr 11 was the quarterback on the Bulldogs 62 public league championship team. John had the same leadership in high school as he did later in life as the youngest Merchant Marine Captain in the 1970’s. John was the acknowledged leader of our team and I was the center who snapped him the ball. In the1962 Public League playoffs Nr 11 scored 8 points, two extra points and one touchdown. Each of those won the games for Schurz. Always standing tall in the face of adversity John never gave up. Even when we lost 40-0 against Fenwick he played as had on his last play as he did on his first. I will miss Nr 11. I will never forget Nr 11. 

Carl Rapp

Sorry to hear of John's passing. My condolences to his family. I will always remember the crazy days with him in Mr. Ulveling's physics class. Hope you catch up with Mike and toss the football around.

John Heuvelman

John fought the good fight.  Being an organ donner I had him on my list for a kidney and was happy when he finally got one.  I played left guard covering his blind side on passes and was his official back cracker to ready him for a game.  Good memories of the champship game and appreciate the other teammates shared accolades and memories.  I think Mike Calhan is the only predecesor from the team.I always said John barked orders like a ships captain only later to forfill that thought.  We spent time routing for and later honoring the Cubs great win.

He is a great man, Husband, Father, Marineer, and patroit who gave alot to his country.  I appreciated his sons obituary/notice and our sympathy to his wife and sons.Jerry Hicks talked with John after the transplant and he was positive but, stated he never felt weaker in his life. May his memory live on and he rest in peace.

In sympathy,

John Heuvelman Tucson # 74

Kenneth Jones

What can you say?  It's a shame this happened when  it was looking better for him.

John was a cool guy, always.  He'll be missed.  Good memories.

Deepest Condolences,

Ken Jones

Gerald Hicks

As has been previously noted, John was one of a small group of football players on Mr. Swider’s Frosh-Soph team on a great adventure together, with our coaches, who first committed ourselves as sophomores to “winning City”, and, over the next three years, developed ourselves into the team that eventually won the City Championship. Our team was“ a unique group of players who were unselfish and who had great character”, and we had great coaches, Mr. O’Keefe, Mr. Swider, and Mr.Rio, straight shooters who taught us not only how to play the game but also how to play the game in life, beyond football. We believed in each other, players and coaches, and never gave up. Along the way, we developed great respect for each other and our coaches and became lifelong friends.

No one on our team exemplified those qualities more than John, who had great character which only grew over the years. John was, like our coaches who taught us so many life lessons beyond football, a straight shooter. He was courageous with mental toughness, self-discipline, great  tenacity, will, and inner strength, honest, with great integrity,  and lived until the very end of his life with great class, grace, and nobility of spirit. John treated others with respect, not only in football but in the rest of his life.

 John became our quarterback, and, starting as early as our Junior year, John came under the wise tutelage of Mr. O’Keefe, who seemingly very early recognized the potential of John and this group of Juniors and, with great prescience, began teaching John, then only the second string quarterback playing, like most of us, behind a Senior, what Mr. O’Keefe called the “strategic situation” in preparation for our senior year and then, eventually, in our Senior year, entrusted John with our offense.

Under Mr. O’Keefe’s tutelage, John became not only an All-City quarterback but also a great field general and we, players and coaches, always had full confidence in him, whatever play he called. John was a leader on and off the field.

As Tom Smith has pointed out, John scored eight points in the playoffs which provided the winning margin for us in the last 3 playoff games: in the quarter-finals against Dunbar, John kicked the winning extra point to win the game19-18; in the semi-final game against Morgan Park, John again kicked the winning extra point to win the game 13-12; and as everyone knows, John scored the winning touchdown in the final moments of the Lane City Championship game to win 6-0.

But in addition to the role the points John scored in the playoffs contributed to our winning the City Championship, unlike most high-school or even most college quarterbacks, John, a great field general, called his own plays, and, unique among high- school quarterbacks, possibly the only high-school quarterback in the state or even the country, even called audibles, changing the play at the line of scrimmage based on what he saw at the line of scrimmage. That is something no high-school quarterbacks and very few quarterbacks short of the pros had the ability to do, and John’s ability to see the strategic situation on the field, react to it, and even call audibles gave us an edge that none of our opponents had. For example, in the Morgan Park semi-final playoff game, behind in the game 12-6, but driving and only 20 yards from the goal line, John saw that the “strategic situation” was that the Morgan Park linebackers were cheating up to blitz, leaving a huge open area between them and their safeties, so he called an audible, changing the play at the line of scrimmage, to a look- in pass to the tight end, right  into that huge open area, and then  threw the pass that scored the tieing touchdown, making the score 12-12 (and  then, as mentioned above) kicked the extra point that won the game, 13-12.

John exemplified the unselfishness of our team and our belief in and respect for each other and our coaches. We played as a team, not for individual glory.  Whatever success we had on the field as individuals we saw only as our part in the success of the team, always recognizing and appreciating at the same time the role played by our teammates, who, over those three years together with a common shared purpose, had also become our friends. As a member and leader of our team, John reflected this attitude and, while certainly thoroughly enjoying his individual successes on the field, John preferred to see his own successes on the field only in the context of his contribution to the success of the team, at the same time recognizing and giving credit and praise to his team mates for their role in the team’s success. For example, despite the fact that he kicked the winning extra point in the Dunbar game, John always credited left halfback Denny Monty and his running off tackle for winning that game, which was well deserved. Despite the fact that John not only threw the tieing touchdown pass but also then kicked the winning extra point in the Morgan Park game, he always credited and emphasized the role of his tight end’s catch of the tieing touchdown pass on an audible in winning that game. Despite the fact that John scored the winning touchdown in the Lane game, John always credited left end Mike Callahan for saving the final drive in the Lane Championship with a clutch catch for 6 yards on 4^th down and five at the lane 22 yard line with a minute and a half to go, which was much deserved when Mike came through for all of us.

However, regarding that pass to Callahan what John didn’t say in crediting Mike’s catch for winning the Lane game was that John called that play after Mr. O’Keefe called a time out, called John to the sidelines, and told John “Kick a field goal” to which John recalled he said “No”, and then Mr. O’Keefe said “OK, what do you have in mind?”, to which John said “Don’t know, but I’ll think of something. We faked a quick opener and threw a little pass to the left end.” “The point…is that this wonderful man had the class not to take the ball out of his team’s hands. Think of the courage!” “He left the game with the players, and that is the ultimate mark of leadership. And, thinking back, our coaches were building leaders.” This background to that catch shows both John’s mastery of the strategic situation and the absolute trust Mr. O’Keefe and we all had in him, as well as John’s great respect for Mr. O’Keefe and his great character and class.

After Mike’s clutch reception, as we all know, John scored the winning touchdown on a broken play by taking off around left end in the closing moments of the game, and we finally reached the goal we had worked for together since we were sophomores and became City Champions. As pointed out by his teammate, Mike Callahan, we would not have won the City Championship without John.

With that score by John, as his friend, Mouse, Mike Imrem, wrote in one of his very funny and nostalgic sports columns shortly after our 50^th Reunion about his own school loyalty to the Purple and Gold entitled “Sorry Saxons, just being true to my school” John and the rest of us became, to him and “in the annals of Schurz athletics, Purple princes of the prairie, Gold gods of the gridiron.”

Like Mouse, John was ”true to his school.” John had great love for and strong loyalties to Schurz, to the Class of ’63, to the ’62 team and our coaches, to his family, to his friends, to the Cubs, to the Bears, to America, and later to his alma mater, the Merchant Marine Academy, known as Kings Point, his classmates there and its football team for whom John played, the Mariners, and to his many shipmates and friends he made in the shipping trade. A lifetime Cubs fan through good times and bad, but living in New Jersey and surrounded by Mets fans, during the baseball season John avidly followed the Cubs, defiantly displayed a Cubs’ banner on his garage, put up a “W” on it after each Cubs’ win, and finally, after a lifetime as a Cubs fan, who was for years surrounded by Mets fans, got to see and celebrate the Cubs winning the World Series.

After graduating from Schurz with many of us in January, 1963, John immediately began the second great adventure of his life, over half a century in the shipping trades, which John later referred to as “this wonderful trade,” starting at 18 as a deck hand on Great Lakes freighters until the fall when he entered King’s Point, the Merchant Marine Academy, on Long Island, NY already a leader, and began his formal study of leadership, the study of which continued for the rest of his life. After graduating with his class from the U.S.Merchant Marine Academy in 1966  in only three and one-half years because his country urgently needed more Merchant Marine officers due to the Vietnam War, John joined his classmates in the Merchant Marine in the Far East in the shiplift of supplies to the American troops in Vietnam, bringing supplies to the ports and up the jungle rivers to the troops, often under peril from the Viet Cong. John rose rapidly in his profession and in the 70s, while still in his twenties, became the youngest Merchant Marine sea captain serving. He continued serving in the shiplift until 1975 when Vietnam fell.  John’s ship was the second to last American ship leaving Saigon as it was falling. He recalled that when his ship was leaving he was seeing soldiers running along the defoliated river. He wasn’t sure whether they were South Vietnamese or Viet Cong but pointed out that it was never good when you saw soldiers running. He also served his country as an officer in the United States Navy Reserve. As Bill Sluka recognized in his piece, John was a true American patriot.

For John, life on the sea was a great adventure. “…there is nothing like going to sea. Every day was an adventure and when it was time to relax you had God’s beauty to behold all around you.” John began his career at sea at a time when life on the high seas still was a romantic adventure, before the shipping industry became more corporate in aspect. John had many real-life adventures at sea. For example, in addition to his adventures in the  shiplift to Vietnam, in the late spring of 1975 John had been the captain of the S.S. Mayaguez in the waters off Thailand, but, two days after John had turned the ship over to the  relief captain to return home to Chicago for the birth of John and his wife, Patti’s twins, Jen and John, as you may remember,  the Mayaguez became involved in an international incident of piracy on the high seas in the Gulf of Thailand when the Khmer Rouge  Cambodian Navy, boarded the Mayaguez and captured its captain and crew, the captives only released after  President Ford  mustered a U.S.Marine strike force to rescue them, at which point the pirates released the captives

In another incident, John’s ship carrying oil to Northern Canada in February became icebound -trapped in the ice up in the Cabot Straits between Nova Scotia and Newfoundland at -47degrees and had to be rescued five separate times by Canadian Coast Guard icebreakers, but John’s ship still overcame all obstacles, including a frozen oil cargo and deliverd its cargo unfrozen and  on time.

Shortly after the birth of his two children, John left the sea as a Merchant Marine sea captain to become a family man but stayed in the shipping trade and  became a shipping executive, rising up through that industry and eventually becoming in charge of directing all operations of all the company’s ships, spread all over the high seas, for his shipping company, Heidmar, where he worked for the last 29 years of his career, the last few of which, due to his renal failure and need to have dialysis three times per week, he worked at home  as a consultant for Heidmar , going into its Connecticut office one day a week . During that period when he worked as a consultant, John was in charge of and, with only one assistant, using his contacts and friends from over a half century in the international shipping trade, created and put on the Heidmar Marine Forum, a kind of very prestigious and hugely successful international Marine seminar with high-level speakers and attendees in the shipping trade from all over the world, after the one for 2016 of which  the  CEO of Heidmar announced to John in mixed company “John, you can  have this job as long as you want it,” However, after putting on one final hugely successful Heidmar Marine Forum in 2017, deciding it was time for the next generation to have a chance, John retired.

Reflecting on that career at Heidmar, John said“…my career here has been nothing but a series of adventures.”

 “I’ve learned a lot in this adventure, and re-validated some basic tenets of life along the way. The vast majority of the folks I’ve met around the world are really good blokes. When you treat people with respect they give it back to you. Respect their culture, put yourself in their boots and you have instant allies. This goes for every country, including some in the middle east.”

“Especially in our younger days it was me all out there alone, figuring out how to handle each problem. But I had an ace in the hole, for I had learned even earlier in life that you can accomplish great feats if you win over those you are working with. You know, if you respect people, as I do, we find that we are never alone-when out on a ship, earn the respect of the crew and you have instant allies, along with all  the experience they have. I haven’t met anyone yet who has all the answers-but when working with a team, be it a crew or an office bunch, there is no limit to what can be accomplished.”

John had a great zest for life and its challenges. He saw life as a great adventure and took great pleasure in it. He was “a man of many parts”.  At Schurz, in addition to playing football, John was also a member of the Wrestling team, which only added to his toughness, played the tuba in the band, and was a member of the National Honor Society. John said that the mantra at Heidmar was be creative and watch expenses. John loved the challenges he faced as a sea captain and as a shipping executive- -difficult challenges as a leader -from impossible oil tanker ship tank cleaning jobs, to negotiating contracts with shippers and contractors, to getting new customers. “One thing I’ve learned is not to shy away from going for it all. Mr. Swider taught me that…” He also loved physical challenges and ran marathons until his knees gave out and then turned to swimming, an hour and a half a day, rising at 5 am. He loved golf and at one time had been a chess tournament player. John loved reading Joseph Conrad’s tales of the romance and adventure of life on the high seas, Teddy Roosevelt’s adventures in the Far West, and, Mark Twain’s humor. He was a fine writer himself, and wrote stories of his adventures at sea to share his adventures at sea and mentor the younger employees, who had missed the golden age of adventure on the high seas, for the Heidmar company newspaper, some of which are quoted here, and during the past year, after his retirement. had been working on a book entitled “Unpacking My Sea Bag” about his adventures over a half century in the shipping trade.

John had a fine sense of humor, and was full of fun. I recall that, one day hurrying to class between classes in the Triangle, I heard some sort of great racket through the crowded corridor down the Triangle which kept getting closer as I moved toward my class. Finally, I saw the source of that racket. It was John Hill, a one man parade, loudly playing a Sousa March on his gigantic tuba. He grinned and waved at me as he passed, still blowing loudly and merrily. He never lost that sense of humor. Years later, he was still exhibiting that sense of humor in a series of email exchanges in 2013 between John, Tom Smith, and Mike Callahan, over the question of “Was Callahan on the Field when Hill scored?” (in the Lane game).

John was a warm human being, a man of great good will to who really liked people. During his over half a century in the shipping trades John travelled to over 60 countries and made friends wherever he went. Wherever he went, John, a quintessential American, exemplified the very best America had to offer the World.

John’s great good will toward his fellow man resulted in him looking after those less fortunate than he. For example, as recently as 2013, John was looking forward to leading a campaign to get “poor and friendless seamen” covered for health complications from Vietnam era Agent Orange. Even in his battle with renal failure, at his visits to the dialysis center three times per week for dialysis, where his fellow patients were suffering from the terrible effects of renal failure and ready to give up while he, on the other hand, was rising at five and starting his day by swimming for an hour and a half each day, he tried to encourage his fellow patients, like a coach with his players, and they smiled. John always encouraged others and saw their positive qualities, wherever he found them. He encouraged his teammates to contact teammates or coaches who were ill.  John never forgot his coaches and years later when Mr. Swider was dying of cancer, visited Mr. Swider and played golf with him.

John’s attitude toward his life, even in his last years, is reflected in a Father’s Day email in 2014, in which John was thankful for Patti and his two children, of whom he was very proud, “who made it a true joy to celebrate” and who, along with his brother, Rick and his family, supported him through his latest challenge, renal failure. He added, “My life was shaped by a perfect childhood with perfect mentors. Parents, Scoutmaster, and Carl Schurz’s great football coaches,” Mr. O’Keefe, who John said “was like a second father to him, full of wisdom. What a wonderful man he was, and quite the progressive football strategist!” and Mr. Swider for his” toughness and indefatiguable spirit”. “Mr. Swider was made of the toughest stuff, and I am very fortunate he took a liking to me and imbued toughness.”

John always said Patti was his rock and that he couldn’t handle the adversity he was facing from his renal failure without her.

John was a man of strong faith, which stayed with him until the very end in his gallant battle with renal failure. For five years he made heroic efforts to qualify for a kidney transplant until he finally won that battle and got his transplant only to find that he was then faced with the greatest battle of all, which he again faced heroically. The courage, toughness, determination, grace, and nobility of spirit John showed only grew in the face of this enormous adversity. Shortly before his passing, he put the way he faced his adversity in that great battle like this: ”You know we are measured not by the adversities we face, the shoal waters on our track, but on how we handle them .” Rather than feeling sorry for himself, he felt that the adversity he faced built character and viewed himself as blessed. His last emails were entitled “Hanging in lads”, but a few days later despite his great courage, will, and noble spirit, his body could hold on no longer.

The friendships John formed in that 1962 Championship team, including mine, had endured now nearly 60 years, and several of his team mates were in close touch with John and with John in spirit almost until the very end. Over those many years it has been my great privilege and honor to call John, Nr 11, my friend.

John enriched the lives of those whose lives he touched. We were all the richer for knowing him and are now the poorer for losing him. John was a unique individual the like of which we will never see again, but his memory and his example gives us the opportunity to be stronger and better human beings.

Glenn Gardner

John was one of those central figures that everyone knew at Schurz.  Even for those of us NOT in football, he was the hero on the field and off, and continued to be one all his life, from the Merchant Marine Academy on.  I got to know him better and more personally at our last reunion...I even showed friends in Mexico my photo with our HS star athlete.  It gave me great pleasure to hear his anecdotes of years of service.

Gerald Hicks description of him on and off the fielld, what he believed in and how treated all around him is a masterwork of prose and friendship.  How lucky John was to have such fine close friends....