John Anthony Kinnon

John Anthony Kinnon, born February 5, 1942, and known as “Jan” to his family and early friends, entered eternal life on September 23, 2023, after a sudden and brief battle with pulmonary fibrosis. John grew up in Atwater Village, Los Angeles, and was the son of John Kinnon of Paisley, Scotland, and Thelma McDermody of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was the second of seven children, one of whom, Joseph, died at birth. He looked up to his older brother Gene, and looked after his four younger sisters, Joan, Judy, Debbie and Therese. As a kid, he loved riding his bike around Griffith Park, playing in Dodger Stadium as it was being built, hanging out with his many Kinnon and McGovern cousins, and cruising with his high school friends. He attended Holy Trinity School in Los Angeles, Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, and even spent a year at Mont La Salle in Napa, CA, where he was studying to become a Christian Brother.

After high school, he worked at Sears to pay for college, and eventually graduated with a degree in political science from Cal State Los Angeles. He was a proud SAE fraternity brother and wore his chapter ring most of his life. Friends and roommates he met in college became travel buddies as his love of politics, history, and international relations blossomed into several trips around the world. He spent time in Morocco, New Zealand, Japan, India, Russia, and many other adventurous places. John finally settled on a career in education and pursued his master’s degree, becoming a school principal at Gault Street Elementary in Van Nuys after years as a teacher, science coordinator, and vice principal for Los Angeles Unified School District. In total, he worked for over forty years with LAUSD.

In his early years of teaching and traveling, John met the love of his life, Diana Dahlstrom Braun, at the apartment complex where they were both living. They married in 1971 and after spending a year sabbatical in a Volkswagen camper van traveling through Europe, they bought a home in Redondo Beach, California, where he lived until his final days. Diana became a teacher as well, and they raised five children, to whom they passed on their love of education and travel, as well as commitment to their Catholic faith. As a hardworking father, he gave up his summers off, and took on additional jobs selling ads for phone directories, bartending, and teaching summer school. He was proud to see all of his children graduate from college and was even blessed to see his two oldest granddaughters off to school before passing. He was a devoted father and loved having a big, busy family. John prioritized relationships with extended family members and took his children to the east coast and to Ireland and Scotland to learn more about their heritage and meet their relatives.

His interest in ancestry and culture led to a lifelong passion for genealogy. He became the Kinnon family historian, collecting photos and documents, pouring over microfiche at the Mormon library, reading ship manifests from Ellis Island, and tromping through graveyards in Europe looking for family names or down side streets in Northern Ireland asking soldiers for directions to the address of his great-great-grandparents. He was able to trace some family lines as far back as the 1600s and had a knack for remembering names, dates and places with incredible detail. He held great respect for those that had served in the wars and great respect for his country and the countries of his ancestors. He recently had applied for Irish citizenship based upon the birth of his great-grandmother and was waiting for a response.

In his retirement, John continued to travel with his wife and closest friends to New Orleans, Paris, Tahiti, Mexico, the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, Ireland, and Scotland. This past year, his children took him on a cruise for his 80th birthday and a trip to Europe to visit friends he and Diana had met crossing the Atlantic fifty years prior. “Da” had a special bond with his grandkids, picking them up from school and taking them to their after school activities and on weekly trips to Yogurtland. He loved introducing them to his favorite Irish and Scottish music, Hogan’s Heroes, classic movies, Notre Dame football, and, of course, he loved traveling with them. John was very pleased to attend the weddings of his five children and the many baptisms, first communions, confirmations, and graduations of his eleven grandchildren. He continued to live out his faith, remaining active in his parish at St. Lawrence Martyr in Redondo Beach as an usher and Eucharistic Minister at Mass. He had a wonderful sense of humor and a true gift of the Blarney, often quoting the James Bond movie, From Russia with Love, by saying, “I’ve had a particularly fascinating life…” before beginning a long story. When he departed, he had lived his life to the fullest and was ready to reunite with his wife Diana who passed away from breast cancer in 2007.

John is survived by his five children: Colleen (Chris) Huck of Bainbridge Island, WA, Amanda (Matthew) Courtney of San Pedro, CA, Rebecca (Jeffrey) Beiter of Torrance, CA, John P. (Samantha) Kinnon of Brighton, CO, and Elizabeth Kinnon of Sevilla, Spain, as well as his grandchildren Emma, Keira, Zachary, Abigail, Madeline, Diana, Kathleen, Elsie, Natalie, Avery and Kevin. He is also survived by his sisters, Joan Kinnon, Judy Nelson, Debbie (Edgar) Pascascio, and Therese (Larry) Manocchio, as well as numerous nieces, nephews, and cousins.

In lieu of flowers, please consider making a donation to the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation: www.statueofliberty.org/donate/. (Then click on the Wall of Honor and see all of the family names that John memorialized!)