John "Jack" Rhodes

Jack was always known to have a smile on his face, kind heart and was an inspiration to his family and friends to the very end.

Jack graduated from Fremont Ross in 1972 and BGSU in 1977, and began his career at Rath Packing as a management trainee in upstate New York. After a few snow blizzards, he moved to Arizona in 1979, where he began his transportation career with Roadway Express, ascending to Assistant VP for the small parcel division, which later became FedEx Ground. His father, and a chance to raise his family in his hometown community, brought him back to Fremont in 1988, where he started Rhodes Financial Services. His sales ability was rewarded by Connecticut Mutual when he was given the Presidents Honor Award in 1989 for being the top salesman in the county. However, he maintained his interest in transportation and his expertise with Mexico shipping brought him back into the industry, where he worked for CFI and MVT as Director of Sales. He devoted a lot of time and love to the Fremont community and its developments. He was a member and President of the Fremont School Board, served on the board of the Easter Seals, YMCA, Fremont Recreation Board, and was Commodore of the Fremont Yacht Club from 2010-2013. He also worked behind the scenes on many local elections to help candidates with their election campaigns.

Jack’s biggest love was his family. He always spoke of the importance of the extended family and was affectionately known as “Papack” to his grandchildren, whom he loved. He was famous for his cooking and always having M&M’s for everyone at the house. He was the center and leader of the family, to whom everyone would gravitate. He always had a way of making you walk always feeling good about yourself and uplifted. His journey with cancer was a lesson of dogmatic optimism, in which he seldom waivered, and is well documented in his self-written book entitled “Blessed with Cancer”. His high selling book, featured on Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Books-A-Million, has been highly praised by the critics as a must read for anyone dealing with cancer.

Jack is preceded in death by his parents and brother, David Rhodes. He is survived by the love of his life, his wife and constant companion, Patricia “Patti” Rhodes, sons; Nathan (Alison) of Phoenix, David (Rene) of Marion, MA, Tim (Beth) of Fremont, daughter, Sarah (Paul) of Fremont, stepsons; TJ Fisher (Jessica) of Columbus, Kyle (Abby) of Austin, TX, brother, Mike (Sheila) and sister, Cheryl (Thom) Reser.

Visitation will be held Thursday, February 28, 2019 from 2pm-4pm and 6pm-8pm, with a tribute service beginning at 7:30pm at Keller-Koch-Chudzinski Funeral Home, 416 S. Arch Street, Fremont, OH, 43420. Funeral services will begin at 11am Friday, March 1, 2019 at Grace Lutheran Church, 705 W. State Street, Fremont, Ohio, 43420. Maureen Pump will be officiating. Burial will follow at St. Joseph Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions can be made to The Peruvian American Medical Society in honor of his friend and personal angel, Dr. Iracema Arevalo, to assist in developing her hospital for the care of the sick and poor.