John Lester Wilfong Jr.

Long time Olympia area resident and educator, John Lester Wilfong Jr., passed away on November 20th, 2024 at the Brookdale Memory Care Facility in West Olympia. John had lived in Olympia since the early 1960's when he and his late wife Georgine Monaco from Issaquah Washington were offered teaching positions there upon their graduations from Ellensburg, Teachers College (CWU).

John lived a long and storied life with many great adventures; whether he was rock climbing in the Superstition Mountains, sailing in Alaska, climbing Koko Head on Oahu (in his 80's) or any one of countless adventures in between, he knew how to have a good time and did!!

Born on Coronado Island, California on October 17th, 1935, John grew up on and around the beaches in the Coronado - Long Beach area; with the exception being a short period of time when his mother Gladys relocated her boys to sunny Honolulu in the autumn of 1941, so they would be closer to their father, who's destroyer the USS Wasmuth was operating out of Pearl Harbor. Needless to say, their time there was short lived and Gladys returned to the west coast with John and his older brother George, shortly after December 7th.

Despite being primarily raised by their mother, both John and his brother were attracted to athletics at an early age; enjoying and excelling in baseball, football, track and field and basketball. John also started lifting weights in junior high, an activity that developed into a lifelong passion for him.

After fulfilling his military service with the U.S. army (which included one very cold winter in Korea) John returned to the Puget Sound where his parents had relocated. He spent the next two years attending Everett Community College where he was able to get back to the sports that he had enjoyed so much in high school. Upon his completion of studies at ECC he next began his pursuit of a teaching degree at Central Washington Teachers College (CWU). Besides making a number of life long friends while attending Central, John also met the girl (Georgine Monaco) who he would marry and raise a family with.

John and Georgine relocated to Olympia upon graduation where they both began lengthy careers with the Olympia School District. John initially began his teaching career at Roosevelt Elementary School as a fifth grade teacher, but soon found himself with a Physical Education position at the old Washington Junior High School in downtown Olympia, where he would coach and teach until that school evolved into Washington Middle School. At Washington Middle School, John continued to teach P.E., but also moved into the math department. John had a passion for coaching and over the years coached: football, basketball, track and field and wrestling.

John enjoyed many good years after his retirement; whether traveling with Georgine, spending time at their condo in Arizona, enjoying time with good friends and family or adventuring around the PNW, John kept himself busy. Georgine passed away in 2012 and after spending several years as a bachelor, John was fortunate enough to discover a new life partner and friend, Marsha Ghering, with whom he would share many a good time with whether traveling on a cruise or working on a jigsaw puzzle. A lifelong reader, John enjoyed reading everything from Calvin and Hobbs to Tolstoy and just about everything else in between, which gave him a foundation for fantastic conversation!

John will be remembered as a kind man of high integrity, who could be counted on to do the right thing, whether it was by his family, his friends or strangers. He was loved and will be greatly missed. After a private family memorial in the spring his remains will be sown into a forest restoration site on the Olympic Peninsula.

John is survived by his daughter Michelle, her husband Brett and their daughters: Addyssyn, Tia and Cienna. His son John and his wife Tomoe and their daughter Annie. His brother George, numerous nephews and nieces, as well as his very good friend Marsha.

His family would also like to mention a special thanks to so many of the hard working and compassionate staff at Brookdale Memory Care Facility in West Olympia, who gave so much of themselves in the care of John in the last year and a half of his life.