John Petch

John W.F. Petch
April 24, 2020 John William Forbes Petch passed away of heart failure at the Salem Hills Nursing Home in Purdys, NY. He would have been 93 in August. John Petch was a resident of Pound Ridge, NY for 54 years. He was born in Plymouth, England in 1927, raised in Lima, Peru, attended McGill University and graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering from St. George's College in 1951 in Montreal, Canada.
He worked for 70 years in the airlines industry, first for Panagra, based in Lima and Miami then in NYC for 30 years for its parent Pan American World Airways where he was ultimately the Director of Interior Design and a member of a team which designed the first Boeing 747's. He subsequently worked for an airline consulting firm, Walter Dorr and Teague. He also attained an architectural degree from the University Of Miami and designed among other things, an airline terminal in Peru, a dog racing track Equador and a residential home in Key Biscayne, Florida. After his retirement he became a member of the Sprite Island Yacht Club in Norwalk, CT where he was active on the Docks and Floats committee and sailed his beloved 30 ft. double ended Vineyard Vixen.
John was married for 48 years to Lorna Buchanan Brown, deceased, of Montreal. They had four children, Deborah Petch Baker (Neil Wassner), Nancy Petch, deceased (Carloni), John David Petch, deceased ( Heather Hardy), Derek Petch, deceased. He has four beloved grandchildren, Kati Carloni (Andrey Mayo), Alex Carloni, Kayley Petch and John "Charlie" Petch. For the last twenty years he was fortunate to have the loving companionship of Lynn Porsche, recently deceased, of New Canaan, CT.
He is the son of Allison McKean of Halifax, Canada an artist and John Percival Forbes Petch of Plymouth, England, a Captain in the Merchant Marines based for many years in Lima, Peru. He came from a family of Royal naval officers, and his grandfather was the Quartermaster of the British Port of Shanghai for twenty years. He had a brother, Peter Percival Petch, deceased, of Peru and nieces and nephews currently resident in Peru, Georgia and Toronto.
He was of utmost integrity and devoted to his family. He was handy and loved to tackle projects -- his motto was if you are going to do something, do it right the first time!