Jon Vernier

Jon Vernier, 82, of Auburn, Washington passed away on November 16, 2025 after an eleven-day battle with pneumonia.

Jon was born in Chicago on March 16, 1943 to Robert L. and Beverly (Christian) Vernier. Jon had a brother, Thomas Vernier, born May 25, 1928.

After passing his GED test, Jon, a 17-year-old, joined the Navy. Ever since he was quite young, he was obsessed with airplanes and his Navy service allowed Jon to help maintain planes on the carrier deck of the USS Independence.

After completing his Navy hitch, just before his 21st birthday, Jon returned to Chicago and enrolled in Lewis College in Joliet in preparation for the aircraft mechanic (A & P License) exam. After a year of hard work, he passed the exam and was hired by United Airlines in March of 1966 at Chicago's O'Hare Airport. Barring two layoffs because of economic downturns, Jon worked for United until he retired at the end of 2001 at the age of 58.

The January 1967 blizzard convinced Jon that working midnight shift outdoors in the winter in Chicago wasn't what he wanted in life, so he began the process of transferring to another United Airlines hub and ended up in Seattle, which he liked much more.

Before Jon left the Chicago area, he married Jane Stephanich. Jon and Jane lived in several towns in the Puget Sound area. Jon could never resist remodeling and improving the houses he and his family lived in. Their son, Christopher J. Vernier was born on September 9, 1970. Jon and Jane divorced in 1984.

Jon married Mary (Feeny) Vernier June 12, 1987. They were married 38 years, until Jon's death.

Another of Jon's passions was baseball. Having been raised on the (Chicago) north side, Jon remained a lifelong Cubs fan. He would coordinate Cubs home games at Wrigley Field with trips back to Chicago to visit his Father. Jon also became an enthusiastic fan of the Seattle Mariners, his adopted home team. To indulge his love for baseball, he traveled to various baseball stadiums around the country.

In his travels, Jon attended several Oshkosh (Wisconsin) Fly-ins and visited a number of air museums.

He enjoyed trips to Amsterdam and London, a Viking River Tour that ran from Switzerland to Amsterdam, a trip to Argentina, and many trips to Hawaii with friends. A yearly tradition among his group of friends was to attend the Souk Harbor sailboat races in Victoria, BC on Memorial Day weekends. Jon went to Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, the Cook Islands, Tahiti, Rarotonga, and Tonga with his friend, Elhanan Greig, who has relatives and friends all across the Pacific.

Jon enjoyed volunteering at the Arlington (Washington) Fly-in for several years, and the Tall Ships Tacoma event in 2005. Most of all, though, he enjoyed being a part of the restoration of the first 727 that Boeing ever built (first flight was February 9, 1963) and which was sold to United Airlines. The plane was a derelict at Paine Field in Everett WA when the decision was made to resurrect it and fly it to the Museum of Flight at Boeing Field in Seattle. It took many months and many man-hours and donations of money and parts to bring that plane back to life. That 15-minute final flight from Paine Field to Boeing Field after restoration completion, for which the FAA granted a special permit, happened on March 2, 2016. Paine Field is a two-hour drive from Jon's home so he was unable to spend as many hours as he would have liked working there, but it was a project that he wouldn't have missed for anything.

Jon is predeceased by his mother, Beverly (Christian) Andresen, his father, Robert Vernier, and his step-mother, Sylvia (Anderson) Vernier. Jon is survived by his wife, Mary (Feeny) Vernier, his son, Christopher Vernier, Grandchildren Taylor and Morgan Cronk-Vernier, nieces Adrienne Curcio and Nanette Bilodeau, sister-in-law, Eileen Feeny, brother-in-law Thomas (Julie) Feeny, brother-in-law Gregory Feeny and sister-in-law Sheila (Feeny) Vogel (David) and nieces Katy (Vogel) Ecklund and Sarah (Vogel) Zebleckis. Jon was very fond of Mary's son Brandon Watson (April Trammell), and Mary's grandchildren, Jabari Watson, Rayne Rollin, Layla Trammell, Hunter Watson, Logan Watson, Ryan Watson, and Kendall Watson.

Jon was curious and interested in many things and continued to read widely. He missed traveling in his last few years but remained engaged in the life around him. You'll be sorely missed, Truelove.