He was born over a grocery store in Melrose, MA, to Kenneth and Sara (Acheson) Powers on August 8, 1924. He graduated from Melrose High School in 1942 and entered the Army, serving 2 1/2 years with Patton’s Third Army in Europe where he participated in 5 campaigns from Normandy to Germany. The experience changed the trajectory of his life.
After several years of adventure, including a cross country road trip on Route 66 and a stint living in a camping trailer in Key Largo, he found his way to Bermuda where he became the Assistant Manager at the Reef’s Beach Club. In 1954 he moved to the New York office of the Princess Hotel and in 1955 he joined the Bermuda Department of Tourism. He was the manager at Bermuda’s Rockefeller Center Office in New York City for the next 15 years.
In 1959, he married Ann Atterbury Conner of New York, and they were married for 43 years until her death in 2002. They had 3 children, Colin, Sara, and Alexander. In 1970, the family moved to Niantic, CT and Ann and John purchased radio station WLIS in Old Saybrook. The family’s green and white VW bus was a familiar sight at local high school football games where it served as a remote broadcast platform. The WLIS vehicle often made an appearance at local parades, usually with his beloved Newfoundland mixes, Dudley and Oliver, hanging out of each of the rear windows. He retired from broadcasting in 1991 and then worked at DeWolfe Real Estate for a number of years.
Perpetually good natured, John was a natural entertainer; as a longtime member of the Old Black Point community, he appeared on stage as gowned lounge singer and in neighbor Jim Stevenson’s movies as a gangster and beatnik. In one movie his character famously killed the Good Humor man which temporarily traumatized a generation of beachgoing children.
Living on Pattagansett Marsh, John never tired of observing the natural landscape and wildlife off his deck. He took absolute delight in animals and children, adoring his three grandsons especially. He taught his family to live adventurously, that almost anything can be fixed with duct tape and WD-40, and that the Red Sox exist to teach you about disappointment. He will be so greatly missed.
He was predeceased by wife Ann, his parents and four sisters, Mary Thompson. Gertrude Glode, Virginia Willmore, and Catherine Hobbs. He is survived by his three children, Colin, and his wife Laurie House and son Liam of Brooklyn, New York; Sara and her husband Robin Hall and their sons Walker and Conner, also of Brooklyn; and Alexander and his wife Fiona Smith of San Jose, CA. Also, nephews Colin Campbell, John and Terrence Willmore, nieces Carol Springer, Jill Mattarazzo, Susanne Kennedy, Patricia Barsamiam, and Robyn Willmore.
He requested that his memorial service be held at the Job Lot store in Waterford, with a reception following at the DQ in Niantic.
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