John Warriner

John "Jack" James Warriner died on May 9,2017, at age 84. His health declined in recent years as a result of Alzheimer's disease. He had been a patient at the Lutheran Sunset Home in Clifton for the past nine months.
He was born June 15, 1932, in Cincinnati, Ohio, the only child of Alice Duerden and Harry Warriner who emigrated from Lytham-St. Annes, England, to the United States in the mid-1920's. All his growing up years were spent in Ashland, Ohio, where his parents settled. His life mirrored that of small town America before and after World War II. He was a Boy Scout. He was a caddy at the country club and then was named to the Ashland High School golf team. He had a job at the YMCA. He graduated in 1950, then attended Miami University of Ohio at Oxford. In 1952 he enlisted in the U.S. Army during the Korean War and was stationed in France and Germany for two years in the Quartermaster Corp. In 1955 he and high school classmate Sonia Welsh were married and they moved to Athens where he earned a BS degree in Business from Ohio University. He spent his entire career in the heating and air conditioning industry in sales and system design for residential and commercial applications. The family lived in Grand Rapids and Jackson, Michigan and Columbus, Indiana for several years. In 1981 they moved to Waco when he joined the former Command-Aire company, manufacturer of water source heat pumps in the building now occupied by Trane on Highway 84. They joined the Waco Sailing Club and competed with area sailors during the weekly races on Lake Waco. They sailed a Catalina 22. At the end of 1988 they moved back to their hometown of Ashland where he worked for Arzel Zoning Technology, a company near Cleveland which produced controls for zoned heating and cooling systems. He retired in 1998.
After retirement they traveled in an RV. A highlight of those years was meeting friends from the Waco Sailing Club at various locations in the country. Then in 2005 they decided to leave the northern winters and move back to Waco to be closer to old friends from the sailing days.
John was a quiet man with a wry sense of humor. He was very mechanical. He was an avid tomato grower, but only in midwestern dirt. He loved a" the family dogs, especially Willie the Beagle. Camping with the kids in Michigan was one of his favorite memories.
In addition to his wife of 62 years, he is survived by a daughter Mary Alice Warriner of Waco, a son James Duerden Warriner of Abilene, and a niece and her husband, Lou Ann Welsh and Mike Alery of Mocksville, NC.
In lieu of flowers a remembrance donation may be made to Fuzzy Friends Rescue, 6321 Airport Rd., Waco, TX 76708. A gathering to remember his life will be Thursday, May 18 at Whitehall Center, the Carleen Bright Arboretum, at 2 p.m. Dave Anfenson, chaplain for Lutheran Sunset Ministries will officiate.