Memorial Service for John Spooner

OBITUARY
John A. Spooner P.E. Ph.D.
John Spooner lost his battle with lung cancer in Estes Park on December 20th 2017.
Dr. Spooner was born John Alfred Spooner in LaCrosse, WI on Feb. 6th, 1938, to his parents Alfred Spooner and Bernice Johnson Spooner. He married Susan Baker in 1962; she preceded him in death in 2012. He is survived by his son Jon Kevin Spooner, daughter-in-law Belynda Kay Spooner, and two grandchildren Ian Christian Spooner and Isabeau Celeste Spooner, and his sister Ann Spooner Martin.
Educated at the University of Wisconsin, he achieved a BS, MS along with a Ph.D. in 1971. He taught civil engineering at Purdue University until 1976. He then moved to Oshkosh, WI and opened his own engineering firm, Spooner Engineering North. This would later be merged with Warzene Engineering where John was a principal engineer and would later go on to open their Western branch office in Greeley, CO. John was involved in many engineering projects across the front range of CO and WY and became a consultant for Van Horn Engineering in Estes Park in the Early 90’s, where he worked almost exclusively until his retirement in August 2017.
John’s father passed away when he was 8 years old. Boy Scouting became his father figure while growing up in LaCrosse and he achieved the Life rank. In the late 1960’s he became a Scoutmaster for a Boy Scout troop in Madison, WI and continued to volunteer with the Boy Scouts in various roles well after his son Kevin achieved Eagle Scout rank, and saw his grandson Ian achieve Eagle as well. John was awarded the Silver Beaver in 1983 by the Boy Scouts of America. John’s involvement with youth wasn’t limited to Boy Scouts; he was involved in Rotary and ran the Rocky Mountain Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) summer camp at the YMCA of the Rockies for several years in the 1990’s. His philanthropic giving included a number of educational and youth related organizations.
John served in the Army for 2 years and was stationed at Ft. Carson in Colorado Springs. He fell in love with the Rocky Mountains and attributes his service as the reason that he and Sue chose to build their home in Estes Park, where he lived for the past 20+ years.
In addition to John’s engineering work and his philanthropic activities with youth, John loved horses, sailing, and British sports cars. John and Sue had horses most of their married lives and did extensive trail riding all along the Front Range and the Rocky Mountains. He obtained his bare boat charter and
open water certification so that he and Sue could sail in the Bahamas. And he was a member of the Estes Park Car Club as well as the British Motoring Club of Northern Colorado. He owned an extensive collection of Triumph cars with his son Kevin.
A memorial service will be held at 1:00 PM, Friday January 5th, 2018 in Hyde Chapel at the YMCA of the Rockies in Estes Park.
In lieu of flowers his wish is to have memorials made in his memory to the Estes PAK program. These can be sent to the Estes PAK program, Estes Park elementary School, 1505 Brodie Ave., Estes Park, CO 80517. Checks should be made out to Longs Peak Rotary Foundation with a memo indicating it is for the Estes PAK as a memorial for John Spooner.