John Oliver

John Oliver

John Oliver, 94, loving husband, father and grandfather, retired DuPont executive, avid golfer, and experimental aircraft builder, died peacefully in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Monday, September 27, 2010.

After graduating from University of Michigan in 1938 with a mechanical engineering degree, he began his 40 year career with the DuPont Company. He held various industrial plant management positions throughout the United States. His career culminated in a position as Director of the DuPont Company's Employee Relations Department. He served on a number of local charity boards including the Del-Mar-VA Council for the Boy Scouts of America. He was also a director for the Wilmington (Delaware) Medical Center, and chairman of the Industrial Relations Committee of the Manufacturing Chemists Association.

Not one to sit idle in his retirement years, John pursued his pilot's license and built an award winning experimental aircraft, a Falco, which was partially constructed in his basement and subsequently completed in a hanger in Wilmington, Delaware. He flew it often with his wife, who was also a licensed pilot.

John was one of four children born to the late Seward and Nina Oliver of Ann Arbor, Michigan. He will be remembered by all who knew him as the devoted husband of the late Mildred "Midge" Diehl Oliver.

He is survived by his sister, Irene; his two sons, John Richard Oliver and Paul Diehl Oliver; his daughters-in-law, Rebecca Adams Oliver and Sue Oliver; and his two grandchildren, Andrea Diehl Oliver and John Rogers Oliver.

Memorial contributions may be sent to the National Stroke Association, 9707 East Easter Lane, Centennial, CO 80112.

Condolences may be sent to the at www.hillandwood.com.


This obituary was originally published in the Daily Progress.