John Howard Sperry

John Howard Sperry passed away peacefully at his home on Saturday, July 2nd, at the age of 95.

The family will receive friends at Kimbrell-Stern Funeral Directors Thursday from 5 pm until 7 pm. His Celebration of Life service will be held at 11 am Friday, July 8th, 2022 at Porterfield Memorial United Methodist Church with Rev. Chuck Knight and Rev. Josh Duckworth officiating.

He was born on April 9th, 1927, in Albany, Georgia. He graduated from Albany High School in 1944 where he was the President of the Honor Society. He joined the Army Air Force Reserve for pilot training; however, the war with Germany ended and the pilot program ended as well. John stayed on in the Air Force and spent his remaining service time in Germany. While in Germany he attended portions of the Nuremburg Trials. He got home in time to enroll in the Spring quarter at Georgia Tech and graduated in March of 1950. While at Georgia Tech, he was a member of Chi Epsilon, the Civil Engineering Honorary Society and served a term as President of the student chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers.

While at Georgia Tech, a friend, Billy Bolton, invited him to his home in Griffin, Georgia for the weekend. While there, Billy introduced him to his sister, JoAnne Bolton. John and JoAnne dated for four years and then married in 1951 just before John left Cuthbert for Albany. They were married for 66 years.

After graduation he worked with the Georgia State Highway Department in Cuthbert, Ga. After a year and half, he accepted a job with Marbury Engineering Company and moved back to Albany. While at Marbury Engineering he obtained his Professional Engineering License, his Professional Land Surveying License, and his Professional Landscape Architecture License.

In 1959, he opened his own office for Engineering and Surveying. During his time in private practice, he did projects with his friend and former boss, Mickey Marbury. He also formed a joint venture known as Lindsey, Sperry and Lewis with Lou Lindsey, Tommy Tucker, Guy Ritter, and Ken Lewis. This group was able to handle Civil, Structural, Mechanical, Electrical Engineering and Land Surveying.

Nineteen years later, he merged his firm with Keck and Wood, Inc. as Vice President. After eight years, he accepted a position with the City of Albany as the Assistant City Engineer. After a short while, he became the City Engineer and Department Head. He stayed with the City of Albany for eight years and retired a week before the infamous Flood of 1994. He returned to work during the worst of the flood and continued working to assist with the backlog of work. After finally retiring for good from the City, he continued to work on an as needed basis as a storm drainage consultant for Dougherty County.

John was a charter member of Porterfield Memorial United Methodist Church and continued his participation in the Church and its many activities and committees until the end.

John is predeceased by his wife, JoAnne Bolton Sperry. He is survived by two sons, Bill Sperry (Susan), Scott Sperry (Vicki), five grandchildren, Brad Sperry (Lindy), Laura Lynne Powers (Rory), Parker Sperry (Sarah), Hayes Sperry (Cari) and Hunter Sperry (Holly) and five great grandchildren, Owen, Emilia, Abigail, Grant, and Weston.

Special thanks to his Care Givers who took such good care of him and made his last few years peaceful and enjoyable.

Those desiring to make a memorial contribution in lieu of flowers, please do so to either: Porterfield Memorial United Methodist Church, 2200 Dawson Road, Albany Georgia, 31707 or, the Flint RiverQuarium, 117 Pine Avenue, Albany, Georgia 31701.

You may sign the online guestbook and share your own special thoughts and memories by visiting Kimbrell-Stern's website at www.kimbrellstern.com.