John J. Wisniewski

1940 - 2018

John J. Wisniewski
10/13/1940 - 07/01/2018
John J. Wisniewski, 77, Port Orange, a retired Daytona Beach News-Journal staff writer and city government reporter, died Sunday, July 1, 2018. Born in Holyoke, MA, John graduated from Westfield Massachusetts State College, where he earned a bachelor's degree in English that encompassed a particular interest in the works of Shakespeare. A former high school English teacher in Holyoke, John moved to the greater Daytona Beach area in the mid 1970's and for a time was an eighth grade teacher at Sacred Heart Catholic School in New Smyrna Beach. Hired by the News-Journal in April, 1978, John later that year was assigned to cover Port Orange, which remained his primary assignment until his retirement. His assignments also included service as the newspaper's Daytona Beach City Hall reporter and coverage of South Daytona, Daytona Beach Shores, Holly Hill and Ponce Inlet. Upon his retirement in January, 2005, John accepted the post of editor of the South Daytona city newsletter and continued to serve in that capacity through 2012. An avid sports fan, what began with a Boston Red Sox-Chicago White Sox baseball game in Fenway Park in Boston in July, 1952 became a 50 year adventure through April 2002 ending with a Toronto Maple Leafs-Columbus Blue Jackets hockey game at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto. John's greatest interest came to be Native American history, especially in regard to the Sioux, Cheyenne and Nez Perce nations, which occasioned numerous trips to historically relevant sites in Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska and Oklahoma. The trips in turn led to active membership in and support of the ongoing Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation's mountain carving project in South Dakota. A life member of the Friends of the Port Orange Library, John also was a life member of the Custer Battlefield Preservation Committee. John is survived by the love of his life, Ida and his brother, Marc of Holyoke, MA. There will be no local funeral service. Private burial will be in Custer City Cemetery, Custer, South Dakota. In lieu of other remembrances, donations may be made to the Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation, 12151 Avenue of the Chiefs, Crazy Horse, SD 57730 or to Halifax Health Hospice, 3800 Woodbriar Trail, Port Orange, FL 32129. The following is from Shakespeare's "Cymbeline" Act IV, Scene 2 "Fear no more the heat o' the sun, Nor the furious winter's rages; Thou thy worldly task hast done, Home art gone, and ta'en thy wages."