John Thomas Shirtz

John Shirtz died on September 12th, 2025, just one week shy of his 81st birthday. John was born on September 19, 1944, and grew up in Syracuse, NY, along with his three brothers and two sisters. He graduated from St. Anthony of Padua High School as President of his senior class. John spent a year and a half at Niagara University before he decided he was not yet quite ready for college life. He went to work for what was then Bristol Laboratories as a second shift lab analyst. Over the next few years, he continued his studies part-time and eventually achieved his Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from SUNY Albany in 1979. John was very much involved with all aspects of the plant, including serving as President of the Bristol Employees Association for several years. Over the course of the next 23 years, he was eventually promoted to the Manager of Quality Control Microbiology.

In 1988 John accepted the position as Manager of Validation, Sterile Products at Burroughs Wellcome (BW) in Greenville, NC. In the early 90's, BW was considering going into biotech products, and at the same time, East Carolina University started a master's program in biotechnology. John took courses towards this degree and completed his MS in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology in 1995, just one semester after his son, Jason, graduated from ECU.

In April 2001 John accepted the position as Director of Quality at American Pharmaceutical Partners (APP) in Grand Island, NY. In June 2005 John left APP and became the Director of Quality for Baxter Health Care at their Beltsville, MD facility. In early 2007 John underwent open heart surgery, following which he made the decision to retire. In his retirement, he became an adjunct professor at Howard Community College teaching Biology lab. He was also active with the Snowden Overlook homeowners' association where he served as President. John and Loretta have been residents of Carolina Preserve since 2011, where he continued his long tradition of service on various HOA committees. They enjoyed many years of travel, especially on cruises and in their happy place, Aruba.

John leaves behind his loving, vivacious, saintly, patient, and temporarily unavailable wife of 60+ years, Loretta, along with his four "children": Jeanette Siegel and husband Eric (Jamesville NY), Johnny and wife Tammy (Broomfield CO), Jason and wife Sandy (Winterville NC), and Jeremy and wife Jing (Cary NC), seven grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. John's older brother, Bill (wife Donna [Syracuse NY]), died in 2012, and he leaves behind brothers Ray and wife Eileen (Cary NC), and Rick and wife Margaret (Syracuse NY) as well as sisters Mary Ellen Shirtz, CSJ (Syracuse NY) and Anne Layman and predeceased husband Joe (Wilmington NC).

The family invites you to join them for a special mass in honor of John at St. Andrew Catholic Church (3008 Old Raleigh Road, Apex, NC 27502) at 11:00am on September 26 th , followed by a reception in the church reception hall. For those that are unable to attend, but would like to view the service, the church has set up a live stream link: https://youtube.com/live/OQjWiRMPg-g

In lieu of flowers, the family respectfully requests donations be made in honor of John to Habitat for Humanity (habitat.org" rel="sponsored">https://habitat.org).