John Preston Kearns

SILVER SPRING, Md. - John Preston Kearns, 87, of Silver Spring, passed away on Monday, June 8, 2009, as a result of an auto accident.
He was born Feb. 1, 1922, in Danville a son of the late Charles Maxwell Sr,. and Margaret (McCormick) Kearns of Beavertown. On Oct. 24, 1953, he married Edith Sanford, who survives.
John was a graduate of Beaver Vocational High School, Class of 1939, and Penn State University, graduating second in his class of 1942, with a bachelors degree in mechanical engineering.
He worked in the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory from 1951 retiring as senior engineer in 1990. Earlier in life he worked for a division of United Aircraft, now United Technologies, at Chance-Vaught in Stratford , Conn., and later, in Austin, Texas, designing and building planes. His creative work extended to being a U.S. Patent holder for a new design of eyeglasses.
He was a member of St. Luke Lutheran Church in Silver Spring.
Listening to opera, particularly any work of Wagner, inventing, photography and solving complex physics problems were among the joys of his life.
In addition to his wife, he is survived by one daughter, Gwendolyn Kearns, Baltimore, Md.; two sons and one daughter-in-law, John S. and Janet Kearns and Wayne P. Kearns, all of Silver Spring; four grandchildren, Jennifer, Sharra, Ayla, and Andrea; two brothers, Robert Kearns of Reading and Richard Kearns of Harrisburg; and 12 nieces and nephews.
The family will receive friends from 2 to 3:30 p.m. Sunday at the Heines-Rinaldi Funeral Home, 11800 Hampshire Ave., Silver Spring, followed by a funeral service at 3:30.
A graveside service will be held at 1 p.m. Wednesday in the Cedar Hill Cemetery, Beavertown, Pa., with the Rev. Robert Reed VanDeusen, officiating.
Local arrangements are by Aurand Funeral Home, 316 W. Market St., Beavertown.