Hi all. 

 Due to circumstances beyond our control   and with heavy hearts we are having to   cancel the Celebration of life service for my 

 dad. I cannot thank everyone that has had a   hand in the planning and execution of the   gathering. At the moment we don't have 

 an alternative plan but when we figure   something out I will let everyone know. For   now please move forward in life, hug your 

 loved ones and know we love you all. 

 The Stamper Family 

The Early Years

A Life of Family and Friendships

John Stamper was born 3/15/49 at Queen of Angels in Los Angeles. The family home was in a beautiful Long Beach neighborhood, filled with lots of outdoor play and lifelong friends. John loved spending time with his Grandpa Isaac Stamper, who took the kids camping and fishing in the Kern River area. At Hughes Junior High, John met his best friend, Kim Killingworth. Together they participated in Virginia County Theater, putting on musicals in Kim’s parents’ home. John performed in several shows yet developed an interest in the technical side of stagecraft. Throughout the years, John continued volunteering backstage doing the lighting for the Civic Light Opera in Long Beach and Downey. A graduate of Long Beach Poly High School, John also found his love for tennis and cruising in his car. Soon he added waterskiing to his skill set and became a regular fixture at Marine Stadium. While attending CSULB, he joined the Delta Chi fraternity, but the draft for the Vietnam war was going strong. John decided to leave the university to enlist in the Air Force.

The Military Years

Active-Duty Air Force

After basic training at Lackland AFB in Texas, he was trained in large system computers and telecommunication equipment at March AFB in Riverside. He was quickly picked out for his intelligence, problem-solving, and technology skills. He was granted numerous top-secret clearances to continue building his career and was later stationed in Ankara, Turkey, servicing cryptographic equipment. John took his leave time to travel across Europe. Sergeant John Stamper was honorably discharged in 1972, returning to the community of friends and family he loved in Long Beach.

Family Life

A Life Full of Love

In 1971, while working at the Long Beach Civic Light Opera’s Man of La Mancha, John met the love of his life, Jeanne Farquhar. The two were engaged soon after Jeanne’s high school graduation and married six months later in April 1974. After apartment living, they soon settled into their first home in Lakewood.

The family quickly grew with the birth of their first son Jeffery in 1975 and Matthew in 1979. John’s career moved the family to Stuttgart, Germany in 1980, where he maintained computer systems at HQEUCOM. While there, the family participated in weekly 5K Volks marches, snow skiing holidays, and traveling across Europe.

After four years in Europe, they returned to Southern California where they called Lakewood, and later Huntington Beach, home. Family and friends always came first. Handyman John had building skills and never hesitated to help others with projects. He and brother-in-law Bob Jones were always helping each other with building and repairing projects, skiing, and biking. John actively supported his children’s school, hobbies, and sporting activities, attending YMCA Trailblazers, water polo games, scouting events, and more. He loved watching his sons graduate, find careers, love, and start families of their own. His greatest love was being Grandpa to three beautiful granddaughters Morgan, Amelia, and Eleanor. Their happiness and every wish were his joy to provide.

 Just Having Some Fun 

Sports and Hobbies

John loved being active and outdoors while spending time with his friends and family. The family was always on the water, in the mountains or desert, or traveling to new destinations. John waterskied from an early age and shared that love with his family, with annual trips to Lake Shasta, Buena Vista, or Havasu. He loved to slalom ski and then later ride his hydrofoil Sky Ski. But his favorite thing was driving the boat and teaching others to ski. Following in his brother David’s footsteps, John and Kim would restore and cruise in classic cars. John loved his 1962 327 Impala, Model T, and Model A. He participated in the Signal Hill Model T Hill Climb, a feat that required him to drive the car in reverse up Hill Street. Mountains and forests were a lovely place to hike, fish, snow ski, and shoot at the gun ranges. While fishing was not his strongest skill, it didn’t stop him from getting the family outdoors and teaching his boys how to do it. As the children got older, John, Chris Wilkinson, and Bob Jones would hop on their bicycles and ride for hundreds of miles each month, including an annual trip to Solvang and a trip down the California coast. Although going on a cruise never enticed John, he and Jeanne started with a cruise to Alaska with their friends, the Palmers. That trip hooked him when it included landing in a float plane on alpine lakes and seeing goats on mountain tops. He now added items to the bucket list called for visiting the fjords of the world. While the fjords of Iceland, and the intercoastal waterways of Ireland remained on the list, cruising the Norwegian coast was the highlight of his life. The love of the technical theater never left John as he moonlighted as the lighting designer for Downey Civic Light Opera in the 90s. And that love continues today through his children and grandchildren.

 Just Keep Learning 

Building a career in IT

After being honorably discharged from the Air Force in 1973, John found employment with Honeywell working on large-frame computers. In 1980, John took an opportunity that moved the family to Stuttgart, Germany. As a contractor for Honeywell-Bull stationed at HQEUCOM, he worked on the military communication systems across Europe. Returning to the United States in 1984, John continued to work with Honeywell-Bull supporting the business and military. In 1994, John left the business world of Honeywell-Bull to work at the Los Angeles County Office of Education in the Information Technology department. He worked with supporting services to the Los Angeles County Public Schools and maintained the large I.T. systems that serviced the county. John then moved to the Orange County Department of Education as the Senior Networking Manager where he found a great team of people. He enjoyed the challenges of building a network that supported the schools and deep friendships across the county and state via CITA, CEDPA, and CEPTA. John especially loved supporting the programs that brought history and nature into the classroom, notably the “Inside the Outdoors” and the Crystal Cove State Park in Laguna Beach projects. He celebrated his retirement in 2018 with a trip to Hawaii, but he never stopped learning, sharing his knowledge, and supporting others to grow.

Retirement & Travel

A Life Full of Adventure

After retirement, John quickly started checking off his bucket list items—seeing the Aurora Borealis, longer stays at Lake Havasu, National Parks tours. and traveling across the United States. In  2018  he and Jeanne took a quick trip to Oahu, then returned to drive across the southern U.S. states up to Michigan and across the northern U.S to Washington, visiting family and friends.  2019  took them to Norway on a cruise to see those beautiful Northern Lights. They crossed the Arctic Circle, and John got his amazing photos. Even though it was 17 degrees below zero and after midnight, he stood in the freezing dark for 5 hours scanning the skies with his camera and tripod. It was a trip of a lifetime! In  2020  the world around us quickly changed, but that didn’t stop John and Jeanne. They traveled by car north in January to Sandpoint, Idaho, where they fell in love with the community and even started to look for a place to live there. He filled non-travel days with hobbies, including riding E-bikes, learning new homestead skills on YouTube, reading Clive Cussler books, updating the home, cooking new recipes, and working on 2,000-piece jigsaw puzzles. They got back in the car that summer and fall to visit Lake Havasu, Zion, Bryce, Glacier, and back to Sandpoint for some outdoor fun.  2021  was filled with home improvement projects, including updating the house’s technology systems, adding a gas line for the new gas stove, drywall repair, painting, landscaping, and travel. Then they spent a month on the road, driving across the USA to visit family, friends, historical sites, and shopping for a possible new home with forested acreage. John lived a life well-traveled!

If you would like to make a donation in John's honor to his granddaughter's charities, please click below:

Morgan- Huntington Beach High School - Academy of Performing Arts Technical Department:  https://www.paypal.com/us/fundraiser/charity/1638546 

Amelia- Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF):

 https://www2.jdrf.org/site/Donation2?idb=1056484462&df_id=2374&mfc_pref=T&2374.donation=form1 

Eleanor- Guide Dogs for the Blind:

1.  https://www.guidedogs.com/support-gdb/donate 
2.  https://secure2.convio.net/gd/site/Donation2?df_id=1060&mfc_pref=T&1060.donation=form1&_ga=2.162231676.1371257214.1544469119-780060456.1510875518&s_src=IBG0N19302