John F. Perry, Born Aug. 22, 1937 to Warren L. and Meretta S. Perry in Tacoma, Wash. passed away Dec. 11, 2018 in Olympia, Wash. He attended school in Tacoma, graduating from Stadium High School in June of 1955. He attended Washington State University and University of Puget Sound. During high school and for seven years afterward he worked in commercial television at Channel 13 in Tacoma; he also worked at television stations in Goodland, Kansas, Missoula, Montana, and Eureka, Calif. John started working for the department of licensing as a driver license examiner in April of 1962, retiring with 30 years of service. He worked in Renton, Seattle, Wenatchee, White Center, Tacoma, Centralia, Shelton, Olympia and Lacey. He continued in driver testing as a third-party CDL skill tester.
John was a resident of Olympia since 1964, living on Eld Inlet. Over the years he had many foster children and foreign exchange students from Germany, Sweden, and Chez Republic.
While working in Shelton, John became involved in the high school athletic program, became president of the booster club for a number of years, and worked with the all-star football camp for 24 of its 26 years. While in Shelton he started a sports photo business that lasted until 2000.
John became involved in wrestling while at Shelton and assisted in the program in Shelton, Capital and Olympia where he served seven years as the head assistant coach. He ran the making of Champions Wrestling Camp at Olympia High School for five years, assisted with the Shelton Wildcat Freestyle/Greco Team, and was certified as a USA junior Olympic wrestling coach. He attended many NCAA national wrestling tournaments and US Olympic Freestyle and Greco Roman Tournaments.
John is survived by two cousins, Katherine Steig of Vancouver, BC Canada, and Winifred Wood of San Carlos, Calif.
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