John A. (Jack) Vasconcellos, Jr.

Jack was born on March 23, 1919, in Jacksonville, IL, to John Antonio Vasconcellos, Sr. and Mary Frank Vasconcellos. He grew up in Bolivia, IL, where his parents owned the kind of country store that sold everything needed for rural life. He attended the University of Illinois, graduating in 1941 with a degree in electrical engineering. He married Dorothy V. Reeter in 1943 in Mt. Auburn, IL. During World War II, Jack served in the Army Signal Corp radar unit. He rose to the rank of Major, commanding a company of 350 men. Jack and Dorothy’s daughter, Mary Ann, was born in 1944 in Florida where Jack was stationed at the time.

When the war ended, the three of them moved to Milwaukee where Jack worked for several years for Allis Chambers. In 1957, they moved to the Chicago area where he worked for JSG, serving as a manufacturer’s rep to power companies in a 3-state region.

Jack retired in 1967 and moved to Dent, Minnesota, an area he loved from vacationing there as a child. For nearly forty years, Jack and Dorothy lived on McDonald Lake where he gained a reputation as the most skilled fisherman around. He fished for at least a short time virtually every day, and over the years, he dressed and gave away thousands of fish to friends and the elderly. The couple was active in the Dent United Methodist Church, and they always enjoyed entertaining and socializing with their many friends. Dorothy, his beloved wife and constant companion for 60 years, died in 2004, but Jack stayed on the lake until he was 89 years old, at which point he moved to Mill Street Residence in Fergus Falls. In 2014, Jack moved to Texas to be close to his daughter, Mary Ann and her family. He died on March 21, 2015, two days before his 96th birthday. He will be buried in Mt. Auburn, Il, alongside his wife and his parents.

Jack is survived by his daughter and son-in-law, Mary Ann and Bruce Dickson of College Station, TX, and by two granddaughters and their husbands and four great-grandchildren.