John Eagan Preston

1922 - 2016

John Eagan Preston of West Chester John Eagan Preston, 93, formerly of Sea Girt, NJ and Monmouth County, passed away Monday, January 18, 2016 at Brandywine Hall in West Chester. Born in St. Joseph, MI, John resided in Ann Arbor, MI and the suburbs of Chicago for a majority of his life, and graduated from the University of Michigan with a Masters degree. He was a proud U.S. Army Air Corps veteran of WWII, serving as a pilot navigator and flying in a B-29 bomber. He loved paying the clarinet in high school and college, was active in school bands, and had his own band called Johnny Preston & the Pied Pipers. He was employed at the Studebaker-Packard Corporation in South Bend, IN, as the Personnel Director and helped to implement the company’s first employee health plan. He was later Vice-President of the J.R. Short Milling Company in Chicago, IL, a consultant at the George S. May company, and the co-founder of Pronto Printing in Ann Arbor, MI. He was predeceased by his wife, Mary Preston in 1999, his son Charles E. Preston, his parents Arthur and Mabel Eagan Preston and his siblings, Pete and Jane Preston. He is survived by his children: Laura Preston-Morris, of Phoenix, AZ, Arthur Gale Preston of Christiana, TN, B. Kim Taylor-Tibbals of New York, NY, Robert Taylor of West Chester, PA., John Eagan Preston, Jr. of New York, NY. He also has 16 grandchildren and one great grandson. Relatives and friends are invited to the visitation on Monday, January 25, 2016 from 6 - 9pm, followed by a funeral service on Tuesday, January 26, 2016 at 12:00pm at the O’Brien Funeral Home, 2028 Highway 35 at New Bedford Rd., Wall, NJ 07719. Entombment will take place at St. Catharine’s Cemetery in Sea Girt. In lieu of flowers the family requests donations to the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America, 322 Eighth Ave., 7th Floor, New York, NY 10001. Envelopes will be provided at the funeral home on Monday. For further information, directions, or to offer online condolences to the family, please visit www.obrienfuneralhome.com.