John H Gorrell

John Henry Gorrell of Pleasant Lake, Indiana went to be with his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and his beloved wife Marjorie, on Saturday April 23, 2022. His parents, Dawson and Dolly Gorrell, moved from Hudson to Pleasant Lake in April of 1931 so that his dad could run the Standard Oil filling station there. John was born a few months later on August 30, 1931, in the first house west of the current post office in Pleasant Lake.

During those days Pleasant Lake was thriving with three grocery stores, six service stations, a department store, blacksmith shop, a lumberyard, and other businesses, so there were plenty of opportunities for adventures for young John Henry, and he made the most of those opportunities. He enjoyed working at his dad's station and made 35 cents a week plus received a bottle of pop or a candy bar each day. As a boy he worked hard at many other jobs, starting at age 11 when he helped Orville Stroh shovel gravel into a dump truck for 10 cents an hour. He weeded onions on his hands and knees for 2 - 3 summers and worked on several farms, including the Lemon Farm east of Pleasant Lake, and John Harpham's farm. In 1948 he worked at the Dodge/Plymouth garage just south of Angola. He took music lessons from Worthy Tuttle in Pleasant Lake, who had also taught future United States Marine Band director Dale Harpham. He received a chemistry set early in his life, which set the stage for a lifetime interest in science. At that time the family was in a house on State Street in Pleasant Lake, and John and his brother Gene experimented in the basement of their house, with their dear mother thankfully not always aware of what was going on. The family had a hunting dog named Hector, a beloved beagle with a personality all his own.

John attended all twelve years of schooling at Pleasant Lake school, where he graduated in 1949. That summer he worked at Potawatomi Inn at Pokagon State Park, where he worked in the kitchen, and scrubbed the floors after the kitchen closed. He did such a fine job that the manager gave him a letter of recommendation which was instrumental in 1957 when he landed his first job after college. Following his summer at Pokagon, he worked at the Kroger Store and the A&P grocery store in Angola.

On October 18, 1951 John courageously entered the army. He had many adventures in the army, often because he had to hitchhike when he was on leave. One time he and an army buddy drove from Fort Riley, Kansas to Evansville, Indiana on a weekend pass. They returned late Sunday night and got back to Fort Riley just before reveille on Monday morning. That army buddy was future US figure skating coach Dan Ryan. In early 1952 John was transferred from Fort Riley to Camp Drum, New York, where he became a chaplain's assistant and served several chaplains, including renowned army chaplain Dr. Glenn Pratt. At Camp Drum John taught Sunday school and was instrumental in leading an agnostic Lieutenant to Jesus Christ, who later logged a lifetime of service to Christ. In October 1952 John entered Chaplain's school at Fort Slocum in New Rochelle, New York. Finally he was discharged on October 19, 1953, and released at Camp Breckenridge, KY where his army adventure had essentially started two years earlier.

John worked at a coal mine in Uniontown, Kentucky while he waited to start college at Western Kentucky in Bowling Green. He started classes in February, 1954 and majored in physics, chemistry, and math. He taught Sunday School to 16 year old boys at a local church, and one of the boys spoke to his dad who got John a job at the Honey Krust Bakery in Bowling Green, where John would work all night and attend classes in the day. It was a tough schedule but he persevered and graduated on August 2, 1957.

John's first job after college was at the Atomic Plant in Paducah, Kentucky. The recommendation he received from the manager of the Potawatomi Inn eight years earlier was instrumental in his landing this first job. He worked at the Atomic Plant about a year, after which he joined Magnavox in Fort Wayne, working in Research and Development in the field of microelectronics. He met and married his dear wife, Marjorie, when she was a secretary at Magnavox in the Radar Engineering Department. John stayed at Magnavox until 1965, then went to Kentucky to continue his pioneering work in "The Vacuum Deposition of Teflon." After that he went to New Jersey, followed by Massachusetts, where he invented an ink that dissolves metal, with application in retail packaging. Finally in February 1971 John, Marjorie, and their three boys David, James, and Stephen, with their pug Dantae, moved back to John's boyhood home in Pleasant Lake.

John worked at Sears in Angola in 1971 as a salesman. He had gained sales experience in side jobs selling Rexair vacuum cleaners in 1957 and Western Star Beef in Massachusetts. In late 1972 John entered his own business selling Miracle Water Refiners, from which he never looked back. His business travels took him all over northeast Indiana, often in a green van. It became a family business with wife Marjorie helping in the home office and sons David, James, and Stephen assisting with installations and service calls. John had many memorable water advertisements in the Angola newspaper in the early 1970s, for example "If you think your coffee tastes like mud, perhaps it was ground this morning!" The advertisements earned at least one award for the paper. Dad used the connection of good water and good coffee by giving away free cups of coffee made with Miracle Water at fairs and home shows all over northeast Indiana in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. The Gorrell's Water Service booth was a popular destination at the Auburn Fair in the Fall, where folks came to the display for free coffee on those cool fair nights. John also had a clean sense of humor and had a stock of jokes he would repeat, for example, at the fairs he would explain to folks that the powdered creamer came from a dry cow.

After retirement, John went back to his love for science, achieving a patent for "Solar Powered Illuminated Devices" on February 7, 2006. He kept an amazing memory all of his life, remembering chemical formulations from decades previous. He was an expert on the history of Pleasant Lake, and remembered people, where they lived, and the locations of businesses, much of which he shared with his sons in his "Memory Lane" emails. His sons will greatly miss those stories. John was also an inspiration to many folks as he regularly swam and did water chin-ups at the Angola YMCA up into age 90. John knew many people by name, because he faithfully prayed for them from a long prayer list that he kept with him even in his final days. He would like to be remembered together with his sweet wife Marjorie, as having raised three sons David, James, and Steve, for his faith in God, and as a prayer warrior.

Through it all, in the army, during college, and for the rest of his life, John was faithful in serving His Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, reading his Bible, serving in the various churches he attended from Deacon to Sunday School teacher, and pointing people to Jesus Christ all along the way. He was a kind and loving dad. He lived a full life, and God carried him away to glory on April 23, 2022 to be with his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and his wife Marjorie. Their sons will greatly miss them both all the rest of their days, and will joyfully be reunited with them someday through faith in Jesus Christ.

John was preceded in death by his parents, Dawson Sr and Dolly Gorrell, by his four brothers Dawson Jr, William ("Bill"), Richard ("Dick"), and Gene, and by his wife Marjorie on December 26, 2021. They are all loved and greatly missed.

Please see a tribute to Marjorie here:

https://www.kpcnews.com/opinions/article_f4170387-7104-5dbc-adef-1a8e6ab376d9.html