John H. Sweeney III

1932 - 2020

John Henry Sweeney, III Captain USN Retired of Arlington born March 27, 1932 in Wilming-ton, NC to the late John Henry and Ellen Gertrude Price Sweeney he died December 17, 2020 in Middletown, NY. After graduating from high school in Wilmington John attended the University of NC at Chapel Hill graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics in 1954. He entered the Navy through the NROTC program that same year. After serving 3 years in destroyers he entered the Naval Construction program at MIT graduating in 1960 with the degree of Master of Science in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering and the degree of Naval Engineer. While in Boston he met the late Nancy Beth Sweeney (ne Shepard) of Barnstable, MA. They were set up as a blind date and married in June, 1959. John then attended the submarine officers course in Groton, CT. This was followed by service in the USS Wahoo then operating out of Pearl Harbor, HI. Following his qualification in submarines he became an Engineering Duty Officer and served in duties involved in the construction, repair and operation of nuclear submarines, including duty at Supervisor of Shipbuilding Newport News and Charleston Naval Shipyard, as the Officer in Charge Navy Undersea Test and Evalu-ation Center, Andros Island. For his final duty station John returned to teach and command the Navy Program at MIT as Professor of Naval Science making their home in Arlington, MA. He re-tired from the Navy in 1981. He and Nancy then moved to Somesville, ME where he worked briefly for Hinckley Yachts re-turning to Arlington to complete his career at Draper Laboratory as the Director of Internal Re-search and Development. In retirement John served as an Arlington Town Meeting member, was head of the Building and Grounds Committee for the Arlington Historical Society and a member of the Arlington Human Rights Commission. John was an extreme bibliophile with a wry and irreverent sense of humor. He was well versed in many obscure topics with an ability to bring them into a casual conversation in an enlighten-ing and humorous way. He is preceded in death by his wife of 54 years, Nancy on July 17, 2013 and his sister Rose-mary Sweeney Hayden of Wilmington, NC, December 2, 2020. He is survived by his daughters Megan B. Sweeney, her husband David Alban and Kathlin Sweeney Rothermel and his grandsons, Vincent J. Alban, Henry Sweeney Rothermel and John Wheaton Rothermel. The memorial service is pending. The family asks that in lieu of flowers donations be made to the Arlington Public Library and The Jason Russell House in Arlington.