John Peter Koster Jr.

John P. Koster died December 8, 2023 in Ridgewood, NJ, after a multi-month battle with post-Covid pneumonia. He was 78 years old.
John grew up in Wood-Ridge, NJ and graduated from Montclair State University, where he met his wife Shizuko, earning a BA in English in 1967.
An award-winning writer in the fields of history, journalism and sociology, he began his career as a journalist at The Bergen Record from 1969 - 1980. After leaving The Bergen Record, he was the Co-Founder (along with his wife Shizuko) and Editor-in-Chief of the Northwest News, a small local paper covering Bergen County, from 1981 - 1987, and was Chief Reporter and Columnist for The Villadom Times from 1987 through the early 2000s, where he wrote a popular and sometimes controversial column called "The Outlaw Journalist." He also served as an adjunct professor of writing and contemporary arts at Ramapo College in the early 1990s, and guest lectured at Rutgers, Long Island University and Fairleigh Dickinson University.
A lifelong history buff, John wrote over ten published books, including Burglarproof, Presumed Lost, The Road to Wounded Knee, The Atheist Syndrome, Reading, Writing & Parents Who Care, Custer Survivor, Custer's Lost Scout, Hermann Erhardt - The Man Hitler Wasn't, Operation Snow, and Action Likely in the Pacific – and won the Sigma Delta Chi Award for distinguished public service in 1974. He was proud to have been interviewed by the New York Times, The Joe Franklin Show, and The History Channel about his books.
John also wrote hundreds of articles for magazines including pieces about the U.S. Cavalry and American Indians in ''American Heritage'', and Custer's Last Stand in ''National Geographic'', ''Wild West'' and for the British Marshall Cavendish syndicate. He has also written articles for ''American History'', ''America's Civil War'', ''Civil War Times Illustrated'' and ''Military History'' and in U.S. Army publications including ''Infantry'' and ''Soldiers'', as well as for children's magazines like Cricket.
He volunteered for the US Army in 1967 and was injured during airborne training in Officer Candidate School, resulting in an Honorable Discharge and being awarded a National Defense Service Medal.
John was a polyglot who loved foreign languages and opera. He taught himself French, German, Spanish, Greek, Latin, Italian and basic Russian. He loved teaching and tutoring -- his greatest joy in life was teaching his children and tutoring young people and seeing them off to college.
He is survived by his wife Shizuko Koster, and their children Emily Walling, of Menlo Park, CA (and husband Andrew, Granddaughter Kate and Grandson Thomas) and son John Koster, of Wayne, NJ (and his wife Lisa, grandsons JJ and James, and granddaughter Lilly).
A funeral service will be held at 10:30am on Wednesday, December 13, 2023 at the Browning-Forshay Funeral Home, 557 Lafayette Ave., Hawthorne. Interment will follow at George Washington Memorial Park in Paramus. Friends may visit with the family at the funeral home on Tuesday from 3-7pm.