Life of John Wentzel, 75, Celebrated in Nov. 2023

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Category: Obituaries

Created on Wednesday, 25 September 2024 14:09

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John Stephen Wentzel

John Stephen Wentzel, 75, passed away November 14, 2023,  at Providence Hospital in Anchorage, Alaska. John resided in Sitka with his wife and family.
John was born July 7, 1948, in Chicago, Illinois, to Donald E. and Myrtle R. (Wheatley) Wentzel of Warsaw, Indiana.
He grew up in northern Indiana and graduated from high school in Warsaw. He lived with his parents, sister Sandra and brother Dave. His mother and father taught him the values of family, and to do everything to the best of his ability. He enjoyed his childhood with them.
In his earlier years his family made regular fishing trips to northern Wisconsin. When he was 16, he made a hunting trip with his father to the Middle Fork of the Gulkana River, in Alaska.
He met Pamela Nace when both were students at Purdue University. They married in South Bend, Indiana, on August 24, 1969, and honeymooned in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area of Northern Minnesota. That was the beginning of their life-long-journey of traveling and enjoying the land. She survives him.
John and Pam lived in Indiana, Montana, Oregon, Florida, Rhode Island, Wyoming and Colorado. They moved to Naknek. Alaska, from Wyoming in 1991. They lived in Juneau, Willow, and Talkeetna before moving to Sitka in 1997, where they lived until September of 2002. John and his wife moved to Australia where they lived for 20 years before returning to the Sitka family in September 2022.
John was predeceased by his parents, Donald and Myrtle (Wheatley) Wentzel, and his brother David W. Wentzel, of Warsaw, Indiana.
John is survived by his sister, Dr. Sandra (Terry) Wentzel Tucker of Warsaw; his daughter Emily (Kevin) Wentzel Walle of Anchorage; sons Forrest (Melissa) Wentzel of Sitka and Andrew (Jessica) Wentzel of Alvdalen, Sweden; seven grandchildren, Violet (Dakota) White of Chugiak, Alaska, Sage Walle of Palmerston, NT, Australia, Caellum, Kieran, and Connor Wentzel of Sitka, Iris and Ceridwyn Wentzel of Alvdalen, Sweden; and two great-grandchildren, Max and James White of Chugiak.
He also is survived by 12 nieces and nephews and several cousins.
John had a rich, multi-disciplinary education that included: engineering, architecture, boat design, art & design, ecology, anthropology, Spanish, physics, biological and physical sciences, botany, ethno-botany, photography, equitation, scuba diving, and technical writing. He had hands-on learning in building construction, welding, self-sufficient living environments, and gardening.
He culminated his studies with a degree from Prescott College in Arizona with a focus on environmental studies and ethno-botany. Although he enjoyed all of the disciplines, he was most passionate about ethno-botany and traditional wooden-boat building.
He served in the United States Coast Guard, at Coos Bay, Oregon, in the early 1970’s.
His hobbies and special interests included scuba and skin diving, reading, Indigenous studies, archery, swimming, photography, traditional outdoor skills, fishing, hunting, bird-watching, bush-walking, camping and campfires, writing poems and songs, cruising the Inside Passage, and sailing.
John loved all of his extended and immediate family and was enriched by them. As a father, he sought to equip his children with rich-life experiences, respect for others, useful skills, and a love of the natural world and learning. He encouraged personal responsibility and independence. His family said he had integrity and endeavored to do tasks to the best of his ability. He was caring, loving, and kind to others. He had a fun sense of humor and loved telling stories and listening to yarns of others.
He’s remembered as a man with a great love for nature, a keen bird-watcher and fisherman, a great thinker and tinkerer. John was full of adventure and learning about the land.
He was a strong man who held the family together. The grandchildren remember and associate Grandpa with the Newfoundland Trap Skiff that he built from the lofting stage to the launch at the mouth of the Clarence River in Northern New South Wales, Australia. This model boat was traditionally used by the Newfoundland fisherman off of the Grand Banks. Another grandchild admired that Grandpa loved nature, going on hikes, and going out in the boat. He was inspired to interact more with the natural world. He said that Grandpa did his best to appreciate “what we were given” and he wanted to do the same.
Good friends and neighbors shared that John enriched their lives with great wisdom, a warm essence, and that he was a good storyteller.
John is missed by his family and friends. A celebration of his life was  held by family at Campbell Creek Estuary in Anchorage Nov. 21, 2023.
The family suggests memorial contributions to Braveheart Volunteers of Sitka or Sitka Maritime Heritage Society.

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