John was born on April 27, 1957 in Petersburg, VA to Dorothy Roxanne McCune Sansing and James Earl Sansing. John was married in Benton, IL on April 5, 1986 to Valerie Jean Bauer. John suddenly passed away on November 15, 2012.
John spent his earliest years in Hopewell, Virginia before his family moved out to Chesterfield County where he grew up with several dozen neighborhood kids whom he loved. Before his junior year of high school, John’s family moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Because John excelled in his studies, he ran out of courses to take and had to graduate from high school a year early, in spite of his desire to play his last year of high school basketball.
While attending Louisiana State University, John’s competitive spirit carried him into countless sporting pursuits. He led several intramural sports teams to championships and he was an avid LSU Tiger basketball and football fan. He absolutely loved games at Death Valley. John graduated Summa Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering in 1978. He began working at Motorola in Austin while earning an MBA in Finance at the University of Texas where he graduated in 1980.
John worked at Motorola and Freescale Semiconductor for over thirty years. Through the years he served as a product engineer, strategic marketing and business manager, operations manager and division manager. He loved working in the semiconductor industry and contributing to the excellence of his corporation. Throughout the years, his work took him all around the world. He took early retirement, which he referred to as his sabbatical, in July of 2011. Since that time, he had been exploring his options and enjoying his family and leisure time, doing countless number puzzles and crosswords. John was a lover of trivia but never heeded his family’s urgings try out for Jeopardy, which he watched every day.
John was an active member of Covenant United Methodist Church where he was proud to serve on youth activities, including mission teams, children’s chapel, and children’s Sunday school. In 2010 he went on a mission trip to Rwanda with Val and True Vineyard Ministries. He loved serving and doing things to help others and often joked that his strongest spiritual gift was the gift of “grunt work.” This past year he enjoyed serving as his neighborhood association’s treasurer. Just two weeks before his untimely death, John attended the Walk to Emmaus spiritual retreat. He was deeply blessed by the experience, loved his new brothers in Christ, and was enjoying spending early morning time “having a conversation with God.”
John loved all sports, especially basketball. He was an avid supporter of his daughters’ sports teams. John was a fierce competitor in everything he did and brought an intensity and expectation of excellence to every aspect of his life. For over twenty-five years he played city league basketball with “the basket cases,” a group consisting of coworkers and many good friends. John was the life of the party. He and Val loved to host parties, especially epic crawfish boils. He loved the outdoors, camping, hiking, snow skiing, keeping his lawn, and riding his motorcycle. He always said he wanted his ashes spread over the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. He was proud to be from Virginia, “the most southern of states,” and always referred to that sweet land as “God’s country.”
John was the rock of his family. He completely supported Val in her ministry and was always an amazing partner in raising their beautiful daughters. He took great pride in being the best father he knew how to be. He expressed his love for his family by continually serving them. He was the best fixer-finder man there ever has been.
John is survived by his wife Valerie Sansing; daughter Aubrey Sansing Kelm and her husband Walter Kelm; daughter Jenna Sansing; parents Dorothy and James Earl Sansing; sister Mary Sansing and her husband Les Hurrelbrink; nieces and nephew Julia, Katie, and David; brother Jim Sansing and his wife Dale Sansing; niece and nephew Michelle and Chris.
John will be greatly missed by legions of his friends, coworkers, and those whose lives he has touched.
The family will receive friends from 4:00 P.M. to 6:00 P.M., Sunday, November 18, 2012 at Oak Hill United Methodist Church, 7815 Hwy. 290 West. A Celebration of Life Service will be held at 11:00 A.M., Monday, November 19, 2012 at Oak Hill United Methodist Church.
One of John’s deepest passions was helping to lead youth mission trips. Therefore, in lieu of flowers, the family would like to request that contributions in John’s memory be made to Covenant United Methodist Church Youth Mission Trip Scholarship Fund: John E. Sansing Youth Mission Trip Scholarship Fund, Covenant UMC, 4410 Duval Rd, Austin, TX 78727.
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