John C. Liljegren

John C. Liljegren, age 84, of Wayne passed peacefully at home, with the comfort of family by his side, on Monday, December 10, 2018.

He was born in Kansas City, Mo in 1934 and lived for his first 12 years in a number of places in that area including Kansas City and Springfield, MO and Topeka, Kansas. His father worked for General Motors and was transferred frequently so the family moved a lot and he attended many different grade schools. In 1946 his father was transferred to Stockholm, Sweden, so the family moved there and he attended Swedish schools for five years. Upon returning to the US in 1951, he attended Upsala College in East Orange, NJ and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics and Math in 1955. This is where he met his wife, Eleanor Carlson, who was working toward a degree in teaching. Upon graduation, John got a job at National Union Electric Corporation and worked developing special purpose vacuum tubes for the US Army.  

About that time, John’s life changed a bit from youthful turbulence and moving so much to stability.   John and Eleanor got married in 1957 in which they were able to celebrate their 60th anniversary with their family in 2017 at a beautiful estate in New York for a weekend.  In 1957 he also started work at ITT at which he worked for entire career.  In 1959 John and Eleanor bought a new house being built in Wayne NJ in which they still live today.  John loved the grounded life he lived.  He was the kind of person that enjoyed the day to day, the traditions of life and truly dedicated his life to his family. He loved having his family around him.

John’s work at ITT focused on radar and communications technologies.  He visited Arizona often at testing facilities.  His work at ITT culminated with the biggest and most life changing technology our world has ever experienced.  He was part of a team that created GPS.  ITT was originally contracted to create GPS as a defense technology for the use of the government only.  It is now the driver of about everything we do on the internet and our phones.

After retiring and having the girls all out of the house about 1988, John and Eleanor enjoyed a lot of time at the shore, eventually inherited Eleanor’s family’s little cottage on the bay and bought a 2nd home 2 doors down.  John bought a boat and enjoyed being “captain”.  Back in Wayne, Lynn and her husband Danny moved into John’s former parent’s home up the street and had/raised their 2 sons Christopher and Jonathan which allowed John and Eleanor to be an integral part of their grandson’s lives and activities.  Joan and her husband Dan have lived in West Orange and also integral in all the family activities.  Karin moved to Los Angeles, and John, Eleanor and Joan have made annual trips almost every year to the west coast to spend time with Karin and her son Arik.

John had a peaceful nature and he was so kind, forgiving and compassionate.  He was a spiritual man.  That peacefulness that he was internally, exuded to those around him.  He will be remembered for being: loving, trustworthy, humble, tech-savvy, always having a to-do-list in his pocket, and as a tinkerer who could fix just about anything. For many years John enjoyed fixing cars as it entertained and challenged his engineering and mechanical way of thinking. From eating everything on his plate to fixing things many would throw away he did not tolerate wastefulness. He was meticulous and organized to a fault. John had about 100 peanut butter jars organized and categorized in the basement with various screws and parts.  His passion for making Excel Spreadsheets for anything you can image provides another glimpse into his passion for organization. He was lovable, kind, considerate, generous, and not afraid to show emotion-he would even cry if a television commercial so moved him.  John was the kind of person who was extremely fair minded and whose handshake was as good as gold. If you told him something he took your word as your honor as well.  John’s words, which were few, were thoroughly thought through and chosen with care. His gratitude for those who did anything for him was always expressed.  Most recently during a hospital stay he took the time to learn everyone’s names, from the cleaning crew to doctors, and sincerely thanked them all by name.

He was a dedicated and long-time member of Saint Timothy Lutheran Church in Wayne.  For over fifty years he sang bass in the choir.  Many will remember his love of photography as well as he often took pictures at church events.  John was extremely proud of his Swedish heritage and after living there during his formative years, was fluent in the Swedish. He was always the main communicator to all the Swedish as well as American family members that live far away.

The family spent time every summer at Eleanor’s family’s home in Seaside Park. A simple, calm, loving family and life was John’s happy place.  John loved to feed the ducks at the Jersey Shore. He would gain their trust getting them to not only eat out of his hand but to follow him into the house. Even his cell phone ringtone was set to the “quack-quack-quack” ring.  He enjoyed boating at the Jersey Shore but always had a dislike of the loud go-fast boats at which he would exclaim “turkey boat” as they roared by. At his home in Wayne John feed the squirrels and tried to get them into the house. Eleanor’s shouts soon put an end to the lets get the squirrel in the house idea.

John and his wife Eleanor have enjoyed sixty-one years of a loving and devoted marriage. They met at Upsala College in East Orange. Their first date was to the movies in Paterson on Christmas break their freshman year. He proposed marriage in Eleanor’s parent’s driveway in East Paterson (Elmwood Park) while sitting in a two-tone green Chevrolet.  They married on April 20, 1946 at the First Lutheran Church in Clifton and after a reception at the Friar Tuck Inn in Cedar Grove they honeymooned in Bermuda. John and Eleanor had Joan in 1958, Lynn in 1962 and Karin in 1968.  His three girls were the light of his life and he was the kind of Dad that was always there for his girls.   His parents moved back from Hawaii to NJ to be up the street from them around 1970 and were an integral part of their lives till his Dad passed away in 1978 and his Mom in 1995.  Every Sunday was family dinner with his parents and Eleanor’s Dad as well.

John was diagnosed with myodysplasia about 20 years ago which is an immune deficiency disease.  He was expected to have that turn into leukemia and live about 3-6 years.  John declined relatively slowly over the years, with a few bumps, but not really till about 4 months ago was he debilitated.  He spent the last 4 months of his life back and forth mostly between the hospital and medical rehab fighting infection after infection.  In true John fashion, he was almost always positive “stay the course” – kind of attitude.  He always said thank you to every aide and nurse, and always remembered their name.  

The last 5 days of his life he was able to come back to his own home for hospice, and then passed away with his family all around him and in peace. John had something special that people were always attracted to – he had a sense of stability and groundedness, in an approach to all aspects of life that came from love, kindness and compassion and wrapped in a sense of humility and humor.  He will be missed by all, but we know that he is in all of us.

John was the devoted father of Joan C. Liljegren and her husband Daniel Collinson of West Orange, Lynn Gaffney and her husband Daniel of Wayne, and Karin Liljegren and her fiancé Kelly Kish of Los Angeles/Santa Barbara, CA; he was the cherished grandfather of Christopher Gaffney and his fiancé Sherry Shen of New York City, Jonathan Gaffney of Wayne, and Arik Billings of Los Angeles, CA.

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In lieu of flowers memorial donations to the Memorial Fund of Saint Timothy Lutheran Church, 395, Valley Road, Wayne, NJ 07470 or the charity of your choice would be greatly appreciated