John Clark Espie III

John C Espie III died on 7 March 2015 after a long and happy life. Although he was sad to leave his beloved wife of 67 years, Nancy, and the rest of his family, he was looking forward to being with his parents and siblings.

John was born on 30 April 1923 in Louisville Kentucky to John C Espie Jr and Georgiana Coates Espie. After the family tradition, as John and Georgiana’s first child he was named for his Grandfather and Great Grandfather. John was quickly followed by his siblings, Dorothy Ann and Fred.

Shortly after, John’s parents moved the family to Indianapolis where they settled near the old Butler University campus in Irvington. When John was four a new family moved to the neighborhood and John met his future wife Nancy Olinick. Nancy soon became a great friend of John’s sister Dorothy; however, John was the first to admit he had little interest in his sister’s friend.

Despite the hardships of the depression, John remembered his Indiana childhood as a time of blissful abandon. He was far more interested in roaming the old University buildings with the other boys in the neighborhood, playing pick-up baseball games, climbing the apple trees, and avoiding the sharp eyes of his mother.

John’s father was an accomplished golfer but worked as a travelling salesman for Brown and Bigelow, a large advertising firm. His gift for both golf and talking made him one of the most successful salesmen in the industry. John’s mother never worked for pay, but was a strong community leader. John got his drive and determination to succeed from his father, but it was tempered by the sweetness and charity of his mother.

After graduating from Shortridge High School in 1941, John put off college and joined the Navy to fight in WWII. He was assigned as a Quartermaster aboard LST 734 and saw action in the South Pacific, most notably during the Battle of Leyte Gulf. He loved to tell the story of how he and his shipmates were sitting on the beach watching General Macarthur repeatedly return to the Philippines for the benefit of the photographers.

In 1944 John was selected to participate in an Enlisted to Officer Advancement program at Princeton University. He returned to the States and had begun the program when the war ended. He then transferred to the University of Louisville to finish his degree.

It was on one of his visits to his family in Indianapolis when he was reacquainted with his sister’s friend Nancy, who suddenly was much more interesting than the boys in the neighborhood. John and Nancy began dating and were married on June 20 1947.

Housing was in short supply for the returning GI’s and their families and John used to love to tell the story of how he and Nancy once lived in a greenhouse with no running water or inside plumbing for free rent in exchange for watering the plants.

In 1950, having finished his business degree, John took a job in St Paul Minnesota. With the family in tow, which now included Steve and Christina, John began working in the Accounting Department of Brown and Bigelow, and Nancy stayed home trying to figure out how to entertain two small children during the long Minnesota winter.

By 1953, John IV had joined the family, and John and Nancy bought their first home in Richfield Minnesota. This is the home where they stayed put for 19 years while the kids grew and prospered, and John and Nancy stretched every dollar to the limit. In addition to his main job, John often worked part-time in the ticket office for the Minnesota Twins, Vikings, and Gophers, although Nancy maintained it was not much of a sacrifice since he got into all the games for free!

In 1964, while working as a systems analyst at Brown and Bigelow, fate came to call in the form of a Methodist minister. John decided to change careers and took a job as the Stewardship Director for the Methodist Church Minnesota Annual Conference. Although he enjoyed his time in the business world, it was this move to the Church that defined the remainder of John’s career. He later was certified as a Church business Administrator and was very active in the CBA national organization. He also began a series of study which culminated in his confirmation as a Diaconal Minister in the Methodist Church.

By 1972 Steve, Tina, and John IV had left home to follow their own paths and John took a job with the Methodist Council on Finance and Administration in Evanston Illinois. It was while they were in Evanston that they began to travel extensively, crisscrossing the United States and eventually the ocean. It was on one of these trips that they discovered The Sea Ranch, a small community about 100 miles north of San Francisco on the Pacific Ocean. John and Nancy resolved that The Sea Ranch was where they were going to finally settle for good and bought an ocean view lot on the spot!

In 1978 John changed to a job for the California Conference in Oakland as the principle fundraiser for the Endowment Board that funded the pensions for retired pastors. He loved this job because it put him back into the local churches and interacting with individual congregations. Like his father, he never met a new friend, only discovered old ones he hadn’t met yet.

John and Nancy built two homes at The Sea Ranch, the first deep in the redwoods, and finally in 1986 they built their dream home overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Not wanting to waste a minute, they both retired in 1986 and moved to The Sea Ranch fulltime where they became very active in hiking groups, building new trails, in community arts organizations, and of course, in their local Methodist Church.

John and Nancy both loved their life at the Sea Ranch, but by 1996 the warning signs of future health issues began to signal that it was time to move closer to the family and modern medical care. John and Nancy left the The Sea Ranch and first moved to Roseburg, then Florence, and later to Portland.

John and Nancy still travelled frequently visiting family and friends and made frequent trips back and forth to view the Pacific Ocean!

John had many, many interests and hobbies. He inherited his love of golf from his father and visited courses all over the world. One of his most remembered games was played in Egypt near the base of the Great Pyramid where his caddie had to chase the goats off the green before he could finish the hole.

He also loved to write. He was a dedicated journal writer from the time of WWII to the time of his death and his attempts at poetry filled volumes and have become a family legend. He loved to compose poems, often accompanied by illustrations, and send them to family members and friends on birthdays, holidays, special occasions, and random Saturdays.

Shortly after his 90th birthday, John’s health began to rapidly decline, but despite that, he remained cheerful and upbeat, taking whatever set backs came along in stride. The last few months of his life, Nancy rarely left his side, making his last few days as peaceful as possible. She sung him some of his favorite tunes every night before he fell asleep and always warned him not to try and sneak out of the house without her!

In addition to his beloved Nancy, John is survived by:

His Children

Steve and Marilyn Espie of Richfield Minnesota

Christina Espie of Glenedon Beach Oregon

John and Peg Espie of Beaverton Oregon

His Grandchildren

Scott and Melissa Espie and their sons Austin, Ryan, and Devin of Red Wing Minnesota

Sara and Brad Benson and their daughter Savannah of Stillwater Minnesota

Adam and Elizabeth Ziemann and their daughter Lily of Wheeling Illinois

Jeremy and Trena Espie of Portland Oregon

Matthew and Crystal Espie of Washington DC