John M. Magel

John Magel passed away peacefully on Saturday, August 17, 2024 after a brave fight with cancer. John somehow knew he would not live to be very old, but made his 55 years on Earth count. He’d be the first to say he had an idyllic childhood growing up in Milford with his parents Kathy and Al, his brother, Tom, and sister, Karen. Whether ‘Zeke’ was playing in the woods with neighborhood friends, enjoying summers with family at Silver Sands Beach, or on various baseball and soccer fields, John held great memories from this time.

He played soccer for Foran High School, enjoyed building hot rods with his Dad, and got into minor trouble with his beloved CTBoys. John graduated from Greater New Haven State Technical College and the University of Connecticut with a degree in Electrical Engineering that required many long nights studying at the library. During his downtime, he played rec. hockey and goofed around with his favorite roommates in South campus and later at Hunting Lodge. This is also where he met and later married the love of his life - one of “the girls upstairs”- at the campus chapel.

John enjoyed many adventures after graduation, including skiing the backcountry in Colorado, mountain biking, hiking, and as a weekend Deadhead. For work, he was lucky to travel a bit, eating nothing but granola bars and tempura in Japan, enjoying meters of beers in Germany, and exploring the south shore of Oahu, where he may have abandoned Eileen in the ocean when he thought he saw an eel.

He made great lifelong friends working and playing softball for Fire-Lite, and enjoyed ping-pong, cornhole and deciding what was for lunch with coworkers at Arris/C-Cor/Commscope, where he was a Principal Engineer.

When something needed fixing, you knew you could call on John. He built a gorgeous deck on his and Eileen’s first house in East Haddam and many pieces of furniture for their home in Wethersfield, where he spent many late nights updating it in 2008. John loved nothing more than chatting with neighbors in the road, or holding “Start the Snowblower Day” which no one in his family wanted to be a part of. John always looked out for others, including stopping on the road to help stranded motorists and leaving the best parking spaces for the elderly. He cared for people in an unassuming way that set an example for his daughters.

John was an awesome ‘Girl Dad’ to Charlotte and Nora. Whether he was playing Pretty, Pretty, Princess or sharing his love of music, he made them laugh while he simultaneously nagged them not to wait until the last minute to do their homework. He loved being part of Lane 8 and cheering on Charlotte and the Lady Eagles, and watching Nora dance at shows and competitions. When he helped coach the girls in soccer and softball, it was not uncommon for “Coach John” to stop the game to tie shoelaces for a player on the opposing team. He loved family vacations to places like Maine, Nashville and Paris, where he got to experience the Eiffel Tower at night with his girls and sat on many benches waiting for them to finish shopping.

John was a member of the Irish American Home in Glastonbury, and served on the Wethersfield St. Patrick’s Day Parade Committee, being honored as Deputy Marshal in 2023. Their crew of Irish and Irish-adjacent friends enabled the town to participate in the parade for many years.

John took up playing the banjo after he and Eileen were married. This did not lead to divorce only because John found an amazing community of fellow bluegrass musicians with whom he adored jamming at Hank’s Garage, Joe Val, Podunk, Auer Farm and with the Pitkin Pickers. One of his favorite events was performing at the bluegrass cantata at Middlefield Federated Church.

If you were friends with John, you were friends with him for a lifetime. He had a deep love of his large, extended family on both the McKiernan and Magel sides, and loved nothing more than Sundays and holidays at his parents, enjoying his nephews, a Rangers hockey game, and some of Kathy’s shish kebob and icebox cake.

John is predeceased by his loving grandparents, Walter and Ada Magel and James and Helen McKiernan; special aunts, uncles, cousins and good friends, Mike Hurley and Mike Milano. He leaves behind his wife of 26 years, Eileen, “Washburn” as he called her, who was privileged to get to walk him home; his adoring daughters, Charlotte and Nora; parents, Kathleen and Alan Magel of Milford; brother, Tom Magel and sister-in-law Gretchen of Shelton; sister, Karen Boccardi and brother-in-law Jason of Granite Falls, NC; his three nephews, Andrew Magel, Christian Magel,and Daniel Boccardi; his mother-in-law, Mimi; amazing friends and family and Mikey, the dog he never knew he wanted.

A special thank you to the wonderful staff at the Neag Comprehensive Cancer Center and the oncology care nurses and social workers at UConn John Dempsey Hospital for their compassion.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Friday, August 23 at 10 a.m. at St. James Church of St. Josephine Bakhita Parish, 767 Elm Street, Rocky Hill. Everyone is asked to please go directly to the church. Burial will be private. The family will receive relatives and friends on Thursday from 5-7 p.m. at the D’Esopo Funeral Chapel, 277 Folly Brook Boulevard, Wethersfield. In lieu of flowers, donations in John’s memory can be made to: TIDE Cancer Foundation, 3 Upper Heatherwood, Cromwell, CT 06416. To share a memory of John, please visit www.desopofuneralchapel.com