Joao Luz Zacarias

Joao ("John") L. Zacarias, a resident of Howard County, died January 25 at Harmony Hall Assisted Living in Columbia at age 95. He suffered from complications of dementia in recent years. John was born in 1926 in Faro, Portugal from humble beginnings as the son of a retired seaman and a mother from a farming and trade family. He left home at 17 to work in a railyard hundreds of miles away, and went on to live and work in many places. John served in the Portuguese Army, wherein he was deployed to colonial Angola and Macau. In Angola he lived in primitive bush areas with no modern amenities, and in Macao he engaged in hijinks with the help of a Triumph motorcycle. After leaving the Portuguese Army he migrated to Canada in 1953 when he was penniless and spoke no English. He went on to serve in the Canadian Army and later became certified as a stationary engineer with expertise in steam power, a trade skill that led him to live in the remote logging mill town of Ocean Falls, BC and later Vancouver, BC. Coming to Howard County MD in 1971, he supervised the power plant at the Simkins Industries paper mill in Ellicott City. Other similar work took him to New Hampshire and Orizaba, Mexico. After retiring from work in the U.S., he divided his time between his childhood home in Portugal and Maryland until 2018. In retirement he parlayed his expertise in water systems to do freelance consulting work for the largest swimming pools and water parks in the province of Algarve where he lived. His lifelong hobby was photography; he built a treasure trove of family portraits he took and developed himself. His wife Emilia Sousa predeceased him in 1977. He is survived by a partner Sarah Kemble of Columbia, adult children Josephine (Pirro), sons John Jr., Robert and Carl, six grandchildren and four great grandchildren, all living in Maryland. A graveside burial service is planned for Friday February 4th at Crest Lawn Memorial Gardens. In lieu of flowers or gifts, please consider a donation to the Fisher Center for Alzheimer’s Research: https://www.alzinfo.org/donate/donation_form/

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.witzkefuneralhomes.com for the Zacarias family.