Raymond (John) Labinski

Born: January 27, 1933 Passed Away: November 12, 2015

John was born in Buffalo, NY, the son of Raymond and Bertha Labinski.

He attended St. Paul's School of Kenmore where he led the baseball and basketball teams to the Buffalo City Championships.

From 1947 to 1951, he attended Canisius High School where he was named Best All-Around Athlete excelling in football, basketball, and baseball. He quarterbacked the football team to one of the biggest upsets in the Canisius - St. Joe rivalry and was named all Western New York in both football and baseball.

He then attended John Carroll University in Ohio where he graduated in 1955 as a Distinguished Military Graduate and was awarded a regular Army commission. This commission was equivalent to those awarded at West Point.

After graduation, he married his high school sweetheart, Sally Blaufuss, who was his beloved, life-long soul mate for 54 years until her death in 2009.

John served in the artillery as a company commander of a 105mm self-propelled Howitzer battery. He left the army in 1958 as a 1st lieutenant.

John joined the IBM Corp. in sales and marketing before joining the then fledgling Xerox Corp in 1963. Rising quickly through the sales ranks, he became the youngest branch manager in the company soon rising to become the National Sales Manager for the Office Products Division which moved from Rochester, NY to Dallas, TX in 1975. While at Xerox, he graduated from the Management Program at the Harvard Business School.

In 1980, he was recruited to become the Vice President and General Manager of the Geomap Company in Plano, TX which produced subsurface mapping for the oil and gas industry. He remained in Texas for the rest of his life except for a 6 year stint in Kansas City, KS where he was President and Chief Operating Officer for Tennenbaum and Associates, a national firm specializing in high-end commercial tax appeal. When the company was sold to a big-eight accounting firm in 1994, John retired settling in South Lake, TX where he assisted his son-in-law, Scott Simmons of Simmons Estate Homes, in selling luxury homes and residences at Watermere at South Lake, a luxury retirement community.

Upon Sally's death in 2009, John moved to Austin, TX to be closer to family and the University of Texas where he was a football season ticket holder for 40 years even commuting for games when he was in Kansas City. For many years, John traveled to away games with Sally, commuted to home games from Dallas, Kansas City, and South Lake, and twice traveled to the Rose Bowl to watch Texas play for the National Championship. John was an avid UT sports fan and during his Austin years was a season ticket holder for UT football, basketball, baseball, and women's volleyball. Additionally, John took continuing education classes at UT.

During their lives together, John and Sally loved to travel visiting over 50 countries on almost every continent. Usually traveling on their own, they had many great adventures and tales from Amsterdam to Zambia and from Cairo to Katmandu. When Sally was too sick to continue to travel, John cared for her, cooked for her, and took care of the house. He was known to forego his beloved Longhorn games in order to care for her. John never took off the ring that was the symbol of their love and commitment.

John was a dedicated father. While he spent many years traveling and commuting for work so that his family would not have to move, he made up for those years at every opportunity. John went out of his way to show and express his love for his children and grandchildren even learning to remember birthdays and special occasions.

John was a lifelong lover of music attending concerts with Sally and, after her death, with each of his children. No genre was beyond his appreciation from classical to Tony Bennet, BB King, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, and even Hugh Masekela. In his final hours, John was surrounded by his children and some of his favorite songs. As the final notes of Eva Cassidy's Somewhere Over the Rainbow finished, John peacefully and gracefully left this world to be with Sally, his long missed and great love since the 8th grade.

John was a great father and loving husband and was truly loved and appreciated by all who were fortunate enough to know him. While he never for a moment stopped living life, he is finally where he most wanted to be, reunited with Sally.

John is survived by his daughter, Susan Simmons of South Lake, sons John, Tom, and Michael of Austin, four grandchildren Olivia, Mathew, Mark, and Evan, sisters Marcia Depasse and Barbara Maves of Chicago, IL and brother Ronald of Kansas City, MO.