John Hoke Strickland

John Strickland, 85, of Tampa passed away on Tuesday, March 11,at the hospital. John was born in Swannanoa, NC and came to the Tampa Bay area with his family in 1974. He had just finished a two year electronics course at Asheville Buncombe Tech in Asheville, NC,and was looking for a new job to match his training. That turned out to be in Tampa FL. Most recently he worked at Hillsborough County Information Technology and retired from there in 2006 after 27 years. John loved his job and wasn’t enthusiastic about retiring. He knew everybody in the County and, before retiring, he knew the answers to any problem that might arise. His people at IT kept calling him at home to help with problems for a year or so. Finally, he found activities to fill the void, golf and cruises. He was born with a lazy eye which didn’t get corrected, so he was pretty much blind in that one eye, however, he loved to golf, especially after he retired. With just the one good eye he managed to hit 23 holes-in-one! He and his wife also loved to cruise in the Caribbean after they both retired. They would go at least three times a year. Other trips were made to Japan and to Israel, not to mention the regular trips to visit family in California and North Carolina. For extracurricular activities, he coached Tee Ball and was chaplain of the Jaycees in Brevard NC. He was president of the Little League for one year and was active at Manhattan Baptist Church in Tampa.To go back a bit to the 1960s, John was in the Navy for one tour of duty and was stationed at Atsugi, then Iwakuni naval bases in Japan. One day he visited Hiroshima with one of his buddies. By a very slight chance, he saw a girl quickly pass by the doorway of the restaurant where he was. Something told him to follow that girl,and his buddy dared him to get a date. He did, and in 1962 John and Janet were married and stay married for 62 years. They both strongly suspected that God had arranged their chance meeting. John is preceded in death by son, Daniel Strickland and survived by wife, Janet; daughter and husband, Denise and Fabian Cawley; son and wife, John and Kim Strickland and their son, Alex Strickland of Wilsonville, OR;grandchildren, Sean and wife Heather Cawley, their daughter Joanna and son Caleb Watson; TJ Cawley; Ian Cawley; Jonathon Rodriguez and his son, Jonathan; and sister, Nancy Rhymer.

A Graveside Service will be held at 1:30 on Monday, March 17th at Florida National Cemetery, 6502 SW 102nd Ave Bushnell, FL 33513. A Memorial Service will be held at Manhattan Baptist Church at a later date.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Manhattan Baptist Church, 4300 South Manhattan Ave Tampa FL 33611.