John Vandevert

1961 - 2022

John Vandevert
March 11, 1961 - February 12, 2022
Tacoma, Washington - John Edward Clark Vandevert died Saturday, Feb. 12, 2022, at his home in University Place, Wash., after a long battle with congestive heart failure. He was 60.
John was born March 11, 1961, at St. Mary's Hospital in San Francisco, Calif., to Alan P. Vandevert and Elodie King Vandevert, the middle of three children. When John's father accepted a position at Weyerhaeuser, the family moved to Tacoma, where John spent his childhood.
John attended Lowell Elementary School until he was enrolled at the then-new McCarver Elementary School magnet program. He also attended Charles Wright Academy in Lakewood before transferring to Stadium High School. John was an excellent skier, spent most winter weekends on the slopes, and was a leader of the school Ski Club. He also worked from a young age, first as a newspaper carrier with his friend Mark Rauschert, later at the Lucky grocery store in the Stadium area. He graduated from Stadium in 1979.
John spent a year at the University of Denver in Colorado before he went to work at Weyerhaeuser. Then in 1986, he went to work as a commercial diver, working offshore in Louisiana, in Arkansas, and in Long Beach, Calif., where he was on the crew that repaired the Exxon Valdez oil tanker.
On Dec. 5, 1991, John married Julie Grohs in Susanville, Calif., and they settled in Long Beach. John quit his job as a commercial diving instructor to raise their three children and help run his wife's wholesale clothing business. He oversaw the remodeling of his Long Beach home that more than doubled the home's square footage, and another project that added a pool. He enjoyed decades of weekends on Lake Nacimiento near San Luis Obispo, often with friends Tod and Erin Sladek. If you were water skiing or tubing, you wanted John driving the boat. The family often vacationed in Mexico with John's father and stepmother, Margaret.
After 25 years of marriage, John and Julie divorced. John moved back to the Tacoma area where he purchased a University Place home from his lifelong friend Mark Rauschert, and did a complete remodel on the home. Mark and Julia Hurley included him as one of their family, with John often accompanying Mark on boating, clamming and other adventures. After recovering from his first bout with CHF, John and Dusti Demarest, the first girl he dated in high school, reunited in 2021 and spent a very happy year traveling, attending concerts and cheering on the Mariners.
John was a smart, practical man, and his friends relied on his wise counsel. He could be hard-headed, and was notably frugal, but he also took good care of his friends, and his friends loved him deeply. His smile could light up a room. His departure from this earth leaves more than his fair share of people very sad.
John is survived by his three children, Sarah, 26, of San Francisco, and Maxwell, 22, and David, 20, of Long Beach, Calif.; his brother, Paul, of Michigan; and his sister, Margaret, of New Jersey.
In lieu of flowers or donations, his friends and family ask that you send photos, stories and recollections of John to dustidemarest@gmail.com, so they can be shared with those who love him.