John Vincent Lardinois

John Vincent Lardinois passed in his sleep on January 24, 2025, at the age of 92 in Green Bay, WI. 

He was born in 1932 on the family farm in Brussels, the eighth child of John Baptiste and Ida (Rouer) Lardinois. Growing up, John was a fine athlete. At Brussels High School, he was a four-year letterman in football, basketball, track, and baseball. A rare left-handed pitcher, John had a hard breaking curve, a sizzling fast ball, and a wicked knuckleball. Throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, he played on four Door County Baseball League champion teams. 

Dad married Darlene Kostichka in 1953, and they welcomed their son, Jay, in 1954. In 1959, John moved his family to Green Bay where he worked for Pokel Wrecking Company and Northern Cold Storage. In the mid 1960s, he joined Proctor and Gamble Paper Company, lapping pulp in the Fox River Mill, although he soon apprenticed with the P&G Electricians. It was a natural fit—he had helped his own father, John, electrify houses as part of the 1936 New Deal Rural Electrification Act.

As a Master Electrician, he installed and maintained machines and systems in the East River and Fox River mills. It was the perfect place for John; roaming throughout the entire mill with a new and interesting problem to tackle every working day. He retired in 1991.

In retirement, John and Darlene hit the road and drove the Alcan Highway to Alaska where John fished for halibut and salmon. Afterwards, they headed south to Oxnard, California, where John took a temporary advisory position at a P&G mill under construction. However, in 1994, they experienced the great Northridge earthquake, and one big shake was enough for Darlene. They returned to Green Bay to stay.

After Darlene passed in 1999, John travelled to his ancestral lands in Belgium. Walloon was his first language, and he remained fluent throughout his life. (As a child, he’d been held back in first grade because he couldn’t speak English.) In Belgium, John connected with distant Lardinois relatives still living in Brabant Province. He was accompanied by his second wife, Barbara Goral, whom he married in 2002. 

John was a kind and generous man, and a natural teacher. He shared this wisdom with his son and his son’s friend Bill, on a warm summer day in northern Idaho: They were in a boat on Benewah Lake, and with the warm sun and gentle rocking motion, John was nearly asleep. Bill reeled in his bait, turned to him, held out the rod and said, “Would you like to fish, John?” Eyes closed and without hesitation, he replied, “I am fishing.”

John is remembered by his son, Jay; grandchildren, John, Jeanette, and Will; granddaughter-in-law, Jessica; great-grandson, Owen; sister, Diane; sister-in-law, Jeanette; and many nieces, nephews, and friends. A memorial service for John will be held on Saturday, May 17 at the Brussels Community Center.