John W. Doyle

Surrounded by loved ones and with songs from the incomparable Tony Bennett playing, beloved husband, father, and grandfather John William Doyle, age 84, passed away peacefully on Monday, August 20, 2018 after a short illness. Just last year, John had the unique opportunity to write a biography of himself and his loving wife, Margaret (Peg) Doyle, for their community newsletter. He worked very hard to put their story into words, an excerpt of which is shared here:

John was born on November 25, 1933 and raised in Cleveland Ohio where he attended Benedictine High School. He received a Bachelor of Science Degree from the University of Dayton, an MBA from Syracuse University, and had several resident courses at the Naval Post Graduate School. He retired as a civilian employee of the Department of the Army.

John and his wife Peg (Margaret Patterson Doyle) met in Bremerhaven Germany in August 1957. John was a GI and Peg was working as a Recreation Specialist for Army Special Services. Talk about a world-wind courtship – they were engaged in six weeks and married six months later. Their honeymoon itinerary sounds like a fantasy trip; two weeks in Italy - Venice, Rome, Capri, Pompey, Florence, Milan, and the Italian Riviera.

John and Peg have three married daughters: Laura born in Germany, Mary in Dayton, Ohio, and Heather in Washington, DC. Peg and John made a conscious decision to put Peg’s career on hold until the youngest was in school. Since their daughters are five years apart that worked quite well: as each daughter started school, the next was an infant and received Peg’s undivided love, attention and nurturing.

John was fortunate to experience both geographic and functional mobility in private business and working for the Army. After his discharge from the Army, John spent some time working in Wall Street, before becoming a computer systems analyst at NCR in Dayton, Ohio for six years.

He applied for a government internship and was recruited to become an Army Staff Intern at the Pentagon where he worked as an Operations Research Analyst for the Comptroller of the Army, providing analysis on weapons systems and the Safeguard Missile System. They bought a home in Chantilly, long before it was fashionable. In 1971 John was one of five civilians, worldwide, selected to attend the Army Comptrollership School, at Syracuse University.

Next stop was Seoul Korea where John was Chief of Management, Headquarters United Nations Command/U.S. Forces Korea/ Eighth Army and responsible for all management analysis and industrial management for the command. He developed a program to teach good management practices for officers and Non Commissioned Officers (NCO’s) in combat organizations, and supervised twenty five NCO’s providing the instruction. John occasionally traveled the 25 miles to the demilitarized zone (DMZ) and the family did get to Panmunjom.

Being stationed in Seoul, gave John and Peg with their three daughters a priceless opportunity for travel. Japan was fantastic – the Ginza in Tokyo, at Christmas time, rivaled 5th Avenue in New York City. The collection of art in the Taiwan museum was breath taking. The museum is built on the side of a mountain, with the mountain serving as the “basement” for storage of undisplayed artifacts.

Upon their return from Korea, John and Peg bought a home in the Stuart Mill Woods area of Oakton, Virginia and lived there for eighteen years until they retired. John was assigned back to the Pentagon for several years as the Budget Analyst for the Army Missile Program. The size of the program grew from approximately $900 million, to just under $2 billion in the three years he handled the budget. John moved to the Army Materiel Command in Alexandria where he was in the Management and Productivity Division.

In the fall of 1995, John and Peg retired and moved to the Tampa Florida area. They started playing duplicate bridge and joined a gourmet dinner club. The desire to travel was still in their blood. They took several cruises to western Gulf of Mexico. Another time they flew to San Francisco and drove to Los Angeles where they boarded a cruise ship. The ship sailed down the pacific side of California, Mexico and Columbia to the and thru the Panama Canal and on to Tampa.

In 1998, John and Peg took a major cruise to the Scandinavian Countries, St Petersburg Russia, and the Baltic States. The Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg was stunning; it is beyond description.

In 2007 Peg shattered her femur in three places and spent months recovering. After that Peg said “let’s go home to the girls”. They returned to Virginia and lived in Leisure World in Leesburg, VA until they moved to Sommerset Retirement in Sterling, VA in August 2015.

John and Peg celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary in April 2018.

Those are the facts that John wrote about himself yet he was even so much more. A car fanatic, a diehard Redskins fan even in the bad years, John was famous for doing multiple Crossword and Sudoku puzzles a day, considering the NCAA Basketball Tournament a National Holiday, reading every Sunday comic that the Washington Post printed, making a mean fried bologna sandwich and taking great pride in having a newly washed car (inside and out!) and well-groomed lawn and flower garden, for which he won several awards during the Seoul, Korea days. But most importantly he was a devoted husband to Peg and a loving father to Laura, Mary Kelly and Heather, working two jobs for many years to try to give all four of his girls everything they could ever want. He was a true and loyal friend, a doting grandfather as well as a caring brother-in-law, uncle and great uncle to a wonderful extended family.

John is survived by his wife of 60 years, Peg Doyle, his daughters and sons-in-law Laura and Bill Goodman, Mary Kelly and Tom DeFranco, and Heather and Scott Sipe; his two granddaughters Jennifer Goodman and Kristen Goodman; his grandson and namesake John William DeFranco; his sister-in-law and brother-in-law Anne and Bob Roche; and his nephews John Roche, Bill Roche, John Patterson, Tom Patterson, and Jim Patterson.

John was preceded in death by his sister-in-law and brother-in-law Dorothy and John Patterson; and his nephew Bobby Roche.

A private funeral for family and close family friends is planned for Saturday, August 25, 2018 at National Memorial Park in Falls Church, Virginia.

In lieu of flowers, a contribution to Benedictine High School in the name and memory of John W. Doyle (class of '51) would be sincerely appreciated.

Benedictine High School

2900 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive

Cleveland, Ohio 44104

Attn: Bryan Lacey