John Matthew Urbank

1936 - 2020

John M. Urbank
August 18, 1936 - December 31, 2020
Fort Worth, Texas - John Matthew Urbank, 84, died peacefully on December 31, 2020 with his children by his side.
John was born in Providence, Rhode Island on August 18, 1936. He lived there until he entered the United States Navy in July of 1954 and served three years. He then entered the United States Air Force and served for an additional seventeen years. He retired in November of 1974 at Carswell Air Force Base after serving his country proudly for 20 years. He once said, "I traveled the globe serving my country."
On July 2, 1958, John married the love of his life, JoAnn Urbank. They celebrated 62 years of marriage and had two wonderful children, Kimberly Martin Cooke, and John Matthew Urbank. One of his greatest joys in life was being a proud grandfather to his 9 grandchildren and 2 great-grandchildren.
Baseball was and will always be John's favorite sport, and to him the only team was the Boston Red Sox. He rooted for his beloved Red Sox his entire life and marveled at the greatness of his all-time favorite player, Ted Williams. In addition to baseball, he was an avid fisherman and loved to travel. John was full of life and happy to be the center of attention with wildly interesting bits of trivia or stories about his life experiences. He never met a stranger; making new friends wherever he went. John is and will continue to be missed by his family and friends.
John was preceded in death by his parents; John and Harriett Urbank and Mary and Roger Gilman.
John is survived by his beloved wife, JoAnn Urbank; his daughter, Kimberly Martin Cooke and husband David, and his son, John Matthew Urbank III and wife Celeste; his grandchildren, Trevor, Matthew and Benjamin Berkowitz, Danielle, Joshua and Johnny Urbank, Megan Fowler and husband Sean, Samuel Meeks, and Samantha Neal; as well as great-grandchildren Amory Urbank and Daisy Castillo.
A private family memorial will be held at the Dallas-Fort Worth National Cemetery.
Memorials: In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to the American Diabetes Association, St. Jude, Wounded Warriors, or to the charity of one's choice.