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John W. Cunningham Jr.
06/26/1931 — 07/20/2024
From Richland, WA | Born in Coolidge, AZ
John W. Cunningham Jr.
John W. Cunningham of Richland passed away on July 23, 2024, at the age of 93. John was born in Arizona on Jun 26, 1931, the oldest of four children to John Sr. and Mirla Cunningham. He was raised during the Great Depression and World War II and lived throughout the West. By the end of the war the family lived in Pendleton, Oregon, where the older John worked on the Union Pacific Railroad.
While in high school at age 16, he fudged on his age, and enlisted in the Oregon National Guard, and learned the basic skills of a soldier. After graduation in 1948, when he turned 17 and could legally enlist, he joined the US Marine Corps. When the Korean War started in June of 1950, on the day before his 19th birthday, he was already a Corporal. He went to Korea in the first Marine Division for the first year of the war and was promoted to Sergeant before he was 20 years old.
John served in the Marines for 12 years, including 3 years in recruiting duty in Minnesota. There he met Barbara Lundberg, a Swedish girl. They were married in 1955 by her father, who was a Lutheran minister. John left the Marines in 1961 and they came to Richland with their young son, Jim.
John worked at Handford for 32 years for General Electric and then Battelle. He retired from Battelle in 1993 after working as an Instrument Specialist and later a senior supervisor in Craft Services.
Also, during these years, he joined the Washington National Guard to get his 20 years of service to qualify for military retirement. He retired from there as a First Sergeant of a tank company in Pasco in 1980. His unit was activated after Mount St. Helens erupted to help the town of Othello remove tons of Volcanic ash from all the buildings and streets.
During all these years, his parents and three siblings passed away.
On September 21,2019, he lost his loving wife of 64 years, Barbara. He is survived by numerous relatives from both he and Barbara’s families.
His son Jim, lived in Richland and was the only one who lived in this part of the U.S before his passing.
The congregation of Richland Lutheran Church was blessed to have John as our brother in Christ for so many years. We will hold your family close in prayer during this difficult time of grief.
“Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?’ ‘Yes, Lord,’ she replied, ‘I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.'” – John 11:25-27 (NIV)
I will miss him tremendously. He was so generous to me and my mother after caring for his sister, Lenile Jatko.
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John W. Cunningham Jr.