John P. Bodman Jr., 71 years old, of Union, NJ, passed away on April 4, 2019, of pneumonia. He was the son of John and Mary Bodman, and graduated from Livingston High School in Livingston NJ in 1966. John enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1968, where he served as a Corporal, seeing action in Da Nang during the Vietnam War until 1970. He was in the reserves until 1974, when he was honorably discharged.
John then worked as a manager at the Electroid Corp. for 25 years, and later was employed by Kraus and Naimer Corp., an electronic switch manufacturer, in their shipping department. He retired from there in 2014.
In his younger days, John's boundless energy was channeled into triathlon competitions, until a bout of pneumonia in 1999 left him with only one lung. He was a great lover of nature and was a member of Green Peace, an environmental protection organization, in which he had once been quite active. Vacations and free time were always spent doing something outdoors, hiking, biking, kayaking, surfing or going to the beach or camping with his children. He had a special fondness for fish and turtles, and one of his long held goals was achieved just last year, when he watched a clutch of 5 eggs being laid by one of his adult female box turtles, then successfully hatched them. He enjoyed model trains, bird watching and learning about a multitude of things from ancient history to world cultures to theories of alien life, but his over-arching passion was music. A true member of the Woodstock Generation, John played hand drums, guitar, and was learning the banjo. John will always be remembered for his constantly changing interests and for his never-sit-still manner. He was rocking and rolling in his many rocking chairs until the last.
John is survived by his life partner Patricia Fleming; by his daughter Sara, her husband Greg and their 2 sons Leo and Nico; by his daughter Emily and her husband Brendan; by his son John III; by his brother Mahan Rishi and sister-in-law Nirbhe Kaur; and by his 10 turtles and Maoi, the cat. In lieu of sending flowers to the family, please make donations to Green Peace by calling 1-800-722-6995 or by going on-line at engage.us.greenpeace.org.
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