Our tribute to John Joseph Redmond. He is lovingly remembered by his wife, two sisters, four stepdaughters, two step-grandchildren and so very many lifelong friends. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ One in a million, John had so many diverse talents & often unusual life experiences. Below is a collection of events remembered by his family & friends. We invite you to add your experiences having known John. It will help us remember & possibly learn more about him. John rarely posed for photos, so... more
Contributing family and friends
Irrepressible at only two "hours" old he turned over. The attending nurse told his mother, "You are going to have trouble with this one". No truer words have been spoken.
From birth and as an adult, he slept an average of only two to four hours each night. His exhausted Mother, at her wit's end, tied him into a highchair so she could get some desperately needed sleep.
At two years old he climbed to the top kitchen cupboards to get cookies, but also found dog medicine, which made him drunk all afternoon.
By Roseanne - sister At my birth, John gave me a pet name of "Docie".
By Roseanne John & I were supposed to call Mom in from hanging out clothes if Julie (infant sister) woke up. Instead, he & I carried Julie to Mom & Dad's bed; changed her diaper, and didn't even stick her with the pins! Mom was so proud of us.
By Roseanne John saved our dog Poochie from a bully across the street, who held her outside of a 2-story window. He ran into their house & came out with our Poochie. The bully never bothered Poochie again.
By Roseanne Dad bought John a BB Gun. One morning, at the dry irrigation canal, John came home crying. Mom asked, "What's wrong?". He said he aimed at a Robin, pulled the trigger & it fel out of the tree. It didn't move anymore. He was heartbroken that he'd killed the bird. Mom told Dad, "He's too young for a gun."
By Roseanne John & I climbed our cherry tree & ate the unripe cherries. For three days we had upset stomachs, but the cherries were really good.
By Roseanne John & his friends always played "Army" at the dry irrigation canal. I repeatedly followed him & he didn't like always taking me home, again.
By Rosanne Later than bedtime, Julie & I we were playing cards, with a flashlight, under a blanket. We wanted John to play with us. Slipping out from underneath the blanket, I slowly crept into John's bedroom. He was facing away from me as I leaned over him. I whispered "John", while tapping his shoulder. He awoke startled, yelling loudly "Aaaaah"...
John always had friends & he became a Boy Scout. He decided to help our elderly neighbors (Mr. & Mrs. Johns) by mowing their lawn with a push mower.
By Roseanne John saved my life when I was a small girl. I had slipped & was rolling down a very steep hill. John grabbed my hand before I met a passing train at the bottom.
By Roseanne John & I had our First Communion together.
At 12 John had the largest paper route in Arizona, with many boys rolling papers & collecting payments for him.
By Roseanne Mom made John take Julie & I "Trick or Treating" with his friends. We were scared & hated going, but John loved Halloween & the candy!
By Roseanne Before John had his Driver's License he was always riding his dirtbike motorcycle on public roads. Many phone calls from the police; picking up John from the station & his parents paying a fine.
By Roseanne Dad gave John a chemistry set, against Mom's wishes. He & three friends expoded an experiment. The friends were burned & all ran home. John's mother rushed him into a cold shower, which stopped the skin from continuing to burn. The doctor said Mom saved him from being blind & horribly disfigured. John sustained third degree burns from...
By Roseanne John road his motorcycle off of the Casa Grande "bypass", at the highest part, without injury, before it was finished being built. Another call from the police in the middle of the night. Who knows how many things my brother did without being caught!!!
John ran with a rough group in Arizona. At one point, he was stabbed with a knife and shot. Neither were life threatening; however, it taught him the importance of always carrying a loaded gun and more trinkets for protection.
Always keeping busy, John held three jobs in high school: Up at 3-4AM picking cantaloupes in Casa, Grande, AZ, until school started; afternoons he worked at his dad's Suzuki Motorcycle shop (& scooter rentals); lastly, at a Mini-Mart from 8PM until Midnight.
At 17, John called some friends to help collect tumbleweeds for two summers. They were piled two-three stories high on a vacant lot. The boys stood evenly spaced around the pyramid of tumbleweeds; each adding a liquid fire starter. When lit, they all were blown off of their feet, with the wind knocked out of them. Scattering like crazy, they return...
Industrial sewing machine mechanic for 52 years. Other repairmen would phone John for help. He was the very best! He enjoyed teaching his customers while repairing machines; so, moving to different states became necessary. The machines stayed repaired too long.
This event will remain a mystery, but it did happen. A very secret company hired John for a special operation in Central America. This required advanced training & survival skills. John flew his plane, completed the tasks required and returned home. Even though John had an excellent memory, he could not account for one entire year of his life durin...
( He was young) John was in the ocean & the under-tow pulled him down. A fisherman rescued him from the water; pulled him ashore & did CPR for quite a while. John, having faced death once before, did not want to return into his body. However, the fisherman succeeded. John was grateful & thanked the fisherman. He remembered coughing up sea water was...
(He was young) John had been drinking heavily the night before a morning dental appointment. The dentist was unaware of his activity & gave John "laughing gas". John experienced floating above the chair he was in & saw the dentist (who had climbed on top of John's chair) trying to resuscitate John back to life. When John was reunited with his body,...
Cars! John was a mechanic. The Citroen was an innovative jewel for him. He mostly liked anything fast: cars, motorcycles or flying planes. He had the need for speed. So, speed he did. In one day in the same State, he received two speeding tickets; however, by the third ticket he was threatened with jail time if he ever returned. His speeding days e...
John was a pilot and loved flying his own plane.
While jumping from a perfectly good airplane, John's parachute failed to open. With the earth rapidly approaching, he jerked & struggled to finally open his chute. It was an abrupt landing and his foot was turned 180 degrees backwards.
The top center photo of John was taken when he received his entry-level U.S. Merchant Mariner's Document. This allows a mariner to work on the deck as an Ordinary Seaman, in the engine department as a Wiper, or in the steward's department as a Food Handler.
Carpentry! John built his home in Fremont, CA; and in 2006 Supervised building elaborate homes on The Big Island, HI.
I was introduced to John via my brother Steve who worked out with him at a local Gym. John came over with Alice Le Blanc who would also become a life long friend to do a BOP (Business Opportunity Meeting--He was in AL Williams but still in training) John got three recruits that night. My Brother Steve, my Mom and myself. Alice got zip. Always ...
While waiting to cross the street in Oakland, CA, he was approached by a man, holding a knife, who was attempting to rob John. As John lifted his shirt above his right side to expose his handgun the thief immediately backed down. Always packing hardware was just second nature to John. He said, "I have no intention to shoot anyone, but to diffuse th...
A "Closet" Poet - He had his poetry leather bound into a 3/4" book, but rarely shared it.
John started his flying lessons at 19; however, much later he received his "Commercial" Pilot's License to fly: "Airplane Single & Multi-engine Land/Instrument Airplane".
Proficient using many materials: John worked with Fiberglass, Wood, Metal Fabrication, Leather and more. He could build or fix just about anything.
John added a little booster to start an old motorcycle and the recoil of the kickstarter broke John's heel. In summary, he broke more bones than that "Evil" guy.
At 48, John was at the gym on a daily basis. Bodybuilding was exhilarating & challenging. At only 5'8", he could leg press 1,150 pounds; his biceps were 19" & able to bench press hundreds of pounds, too. Whatever John set his mind to he mastered the task at hand.
David Smith In April of 1999 I had worked myself out of a job. My mom wanted to go back to Cheyenne and see her mom who was living in Mountain Towers in Cheyenne. Mom wanted to get a lot of photos and paintings from her mom's house in Lusk. So we drove back. On the way back we stopped and visited with John and Lori for several days. They were living in Colbran Colorado Above are photos of John Redmond and myself in one and the second photo has a photo of John, my Mom Gloria (died on her 84th birthday in 2011) and myself. Good memories.
John taught at the Job Corps in Collbran, CO and in Priest River, Idaho, he was a substitute teacher at Lamanna High School.
A genius I.Q. of 165+- (attaining further knowledge with age), always curious how things work; how to fix broken things and how to make things better. He was an inventor extraordinaire. Inventing was continuous: Clever Lever Cruise Control; Wind Whippers; Wind Shins; and the TRAC (True Ram Air Cleaner). All because he bought a Road Star Motorcycle....
John learned of motorcycle transmissions failing. (Very long story) John sent his Road Star transmission to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration investigator, Robert Young, along with two inches of emails from riders with problems (45 had been in accidents - transmissions would seize without warning). End result: Mr. Young told...
John received special clearance to go aboard an aircraft carrier & submarine to repair sewing machines at the US Naval Base on Oahu, HI.
Always making friends in the blink of an eye, John knew so many people. He was always there to help anyone who was in need. Sewing machine customers would call for needed repairs and John would troubleshoot & help them repair their machine by phone, at no charge. He'd tell them, "Thanks for saving me the trip into town". Actually, he did enjoy bei...
Gunsmithing! Tinkering & repairing guns were two favorites, of many. The perfectionist in John became a reality while he learned to reload his own bullets. He decided to invent and sold a more user-friendly holster: The Handy Holster.
[[Below is a post written by John on Quora.com, responding to the question, "Is two hours of sleep worth it or no sleep is better?"]] Since I only sleep 2–4 anyway-sometimes I’m up for 72 hours. Never have need much sleep my whole life-now at 69 no big deal. If you can get into REM sleep in that time -do it! If you are unable to relax completely...
John became an avid reader, especially at night. Two of his favorite writers were Clive Cussler & Tom Clancy.
John also worked on astronaut space suits (date unknown).
I remember John's laugh and he just always seemed "awnery" to me which I appreciated as a child. Most recently I sent him a photo of my daughter and his response was so kind ("WOW! She is fantastic!") after not being in touch for so many years. I then started to receive lots of funny emails from him. It gave me a window into who he was-which was ni...