John F. Wandless

John Finlow Wandless, age 75, was called home to the loving heart that created him on Sunday, January 8, 2012. John was born on August 17, 1936 in Corpus Christi, TX to Loring and Bessie Mae Wandless. As a child John (called Finlow by close family) loved to fish in the Corpus Christi Bay with his father and brothers. Finlow worked almost his entire life. As a young boy he mowed lawns, sold rabbit manure and mistletoe, served root beer at a car hop, and delivered newspapers. After his father died in 1947, young Finlow continued to work at various jobs to help support his family; he worked in a grocery store, as a construction worker, as an oil field roughneck, and as an agent for the Trans-Texas Airways. He stayed out of school during his senior year in high school so that he could work full-time, but then completed his secondary education at Jones High School in Beeville, where he was voted “Most Handsome” by fellow classmates. He left home in 1958 to serve in the Marine Corps Reserves and then in the Army, where he served as a cook in Korea. It was when he got the chance to venture out in the world that he realized his life’s purpose was to help the less fortunate. He considered becoming a Christian minister, but eventually decided that social work would be the best field for him to fulfill his life’s vocation. He studied at Del Mar College, Huston-Tillotson College, and received a B.A. in Spanish and History from the University of Texas at Austin in 1965. He served in the Peace Corps from 1965-67 in Venezuela as a Community Organizer/Youth Worker with the YMCA and Boy Scouts. He then went to graduate school in Social Work and Community Development at Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Missouri at Columbia. During his graduate studies he met an exchange student from Colombia, South America named Margarita Maria Quijano. They were married in 1969 and moved to San Antonio, TX after the birth of their first son. In San Antonio, John worked with many different agencies as a youth worker, social worker, and mental health/substance abuse counselor. From 1971-1987 he served as the Executive Director of the Kenwood Community Center, where he worked with the neighborhood council and area organizations and governmental units to plan and carry out a wide variety of programs and projects to benefit the community. From 1987-1996 he served as a Psychiatric Social Worker for the Kerrville State Hospital. In the last decade and a half of his life he continued to dedicate himself to the service of others as a substance abuse counselor, a musician, and a Reiki Master Teacher. He loved singing and playing the guitar, harmonica, and piano, and in his last few years could often be found singing karaoke around San Antonio. He devoted his life to the promotion of healing, understanding and forgiveness, and will be remembered by all those who knew him for his kindness and generosity of spirit. John Finlow is preceded in death by son Albert Wandless and parents Bessie Mae Hutsell Wandless and Loring Bailey Wandless. He is survived by wife Gina Paola Ochoa Pimienta and stepson Carlos Eduardo Rojano Ochoa; children Charles Loring Wandless, Catalina Maria Wandless, and Ana Maria Wandless, their mother Margarita Maria Wandless, and daughter-in-law Joanne Clifford Wandless; grandchildren Hannah Maria Biasiolli, Avery Maria Biasiolli, Charles Robert Wandless, and Maxim Albert Wandless; all of San Antonio, TX. He is also survived by siblings Donald Wandless of Warrenton, MO; Loring Wandless of Waco, TX; and Alicia McKinney of Belvedere, ILL. Visitation will be held Thursday, January 12th from 7-9pm. Funeral sevices will be held Friday, January 13th at 9am. Services will be held at Sunset Memorial Park Funeral Home,1701 Austin Highway, San Antonio, TX 78218.

Arrangements under the direction of Sunset Funeral Home, San Antonio, TX.