John Edmond Ferris

Captain John Edmond Ferris (USAF Ret) died peacefully in his sleep at his home in Auburn, Ca. on May 15th2019. He was attended by his children and grandchildren. He is predeceased by his wife of 65 years Vida Ferris, his son Darryl Ferris and grandchild Jonathan Friedlander. John was born October 26, 1930 on the family farm in Curtis Oklahoma to William Roy Ferris and Janie Lucine Davis. He was the oldest of 6 children, 2 boys and 4 girls. In 1948 when he came home from College for Christmas break he was talked into joining the Air Force by a high school buddy. While stationed at Great Falls Montana as a teletype operator he met a WAF who came in to fix his teletype. It was love at first sight. After a few months of dating John and Vida were married. Shortly after that he was transferred to Saudi Arabia where he distinguished himself and was recommended for Officers Candidate School. He declined. After his year tour was up he returned to Great Falls to meet his 9 month old son Gary for the first time. After his transfer to Travis AFB, Ca a year later he decided to make the Air Force his career and applied for OCS finishing up 47th out of 169 in his class. While at Travis his daughter Denise was born. After transfers to Florida and South Carolina (where another son Darryl was born) he was transferred to Germany for 4 years where he was in missile guidance. John finally ended up at Hamilton AFB where he retired with 21 years of service. He went back to college and received his Bachelors in Business Administration from Golden Gate University. While going for his MBA Vida told him he was going to be a dad again. He was extremely happy but this ended further education as he had to get a job to support mom and newborn Wesley. He was accepted as an insurance auditor and quickly moved up to Regional Audit Manager. While in Novato he was active in the bowling league and worked tirelessly for the Hamilton Voodoo swim team and Novato Aquanauts swim team and was known as ‘Captain Ferris’ to all the kids on the team. In 1988 John moved to Auburn where he found a love for genealogy. Cousin Johnny, as he was known, traced his lineage back to the early 1700s and was editor of the Zachariah Chronicles which he sent to any Ferris descendant who wanted one. He was in contact with hundreds of people across the country and gladly shared information and helped any and all who wanted it. Vida spent a lot of her time babysitting ‘HER’ kids and John ran the taxi service picking them up and dropping them off at school and various activities. They both loved their grand and great-grandkids and being a part of their lives. John is survived by his sisters Margarita Pickle, Sharon Hoover, Debbie Wasson and his brother Bobbie Ferris, his children Gary Ferris, Denise Marriot, Wesley Ferris, 10 grandchildren and 7 great grandchildren and several ‘adopted’ children who called him ‘Papa’. To John family was everything and he loved each and every one of them. We love you and will miss you Dad, Papa.