John J. Swoboda Jr.

John J. Swoboda, Jr (Johnny) said adios one last time on Tuesday, May 19, 2021. John was a native of Victoria and lived most of his life there except for brief stints in Austin, Texas, Iran, Iraq, Cape Town, South Africa, and most recently Bryan, Texas. He leaves a close family legacy of his wife, Jere Jean (Alex) Swoboda, originally from Yorktown, his daughter and son-in-law, Jill, and Tom Lyster (Bryan) and their three sons, Tim, Brian, and David, his son and daughter-in-law, Jay, and Kristie (Timme) Swoboda (Conroe), their son Sean (Kayla) and daughters Mo (Darby), and Katie (Travon) Earl and one great-grandson, Erik Dorsey of Virginia. He is also survived by his sisters Judy Hasse of Austin, TX, and Diana (Joe) Barbaglia of Nebraska, many nieces, nephews, and cousins, as well as colleagues, friends, and associates around the country and across the globe. He was preceded in death by his parents John and Albina (Cuba) Swoboda, sister JoAnn Sparkes and brothers Allen and Norman.

John was an active man who loved his family, church, community, friends, and doing what he could to help others. He had an affinity for boating, whether overturning sailboats or having mock pirate battles as a Sea Scout in the waters around Rockport, TX, finding every sandbar and oyster reef in Matagorda Bay, or cruising lazily down the Coleto Creek Reservoir. Equally at home in the air, he built and flew model airplanes as a boy, built and launched rockets during college with the Southwest Rocket Society, sometimes reaching greater heights than some early NASA rockets, worked toward his private pilot’s license, and often flew with friends as well as commercially around the world several times.

An avid outdoorsman, he grew up working on the family farm, later raising cattle in Schroeder, TX, and teaching his kids and grandkids to appreciate the outdoors, the value of hard work, and the circle of life. He loved hunting dove and quail, and especially whitetail and mule deer in West Texas in such exotic spots as Hondo, Bandera, Tarpley, Sanderson, and Alpine. He loved anything he could drive, be it a tractor, the jeep-like vehicle he built in high school, bulldozer, loader, a jeep with the top down across the mountain tops, and especially the 3-wheeler his employees and associates gave him as a surprise service award. Friends and colleagues were often surprised when he’d take them across the pastures checking cattle in a Buick or Cadillac instead of a pickup. He also enjoyed snow skiing in Colorado and at Lake Tahoe with friends and family.

John and Jere both attended the University of Texas at Austin, where he graduated as a Mechanical Engineer (his children and some of his grandchildren set this right by graduating from Texas A&M). He was passionate and loved building equipment, solving problems, and pushing limits. Never idle, John always worked hard, starting with picking cotton on the family farm, welding in his dad’s repair shop, Victoria Machine Works, working as a roughneck, building pipelines and terminals in Iran and Iraq in the late 1950s and early 1960s, building diamond mining equipment in Cape Town, South Africa, and designing aircraft weapons support systems for Standard Equipment in Dallas, TX.

He especially loved building Victoria Machine Works from a small repair shop into a globally renowned engineering powerhouse with his brother Norman. Their achievements include record-setting offshore deepwater developments, safe deepwater diving systems, robotic pipe handling arms, submarine launching systems, space weapons research, undersea habitats, specialized vehicles, equipment for moving wounded soldiers to the safety of a hospital ship, and even telescope lens molds; no challenge was too big. With an indomitable spirit and a great team at VMW, some joked that they did so many things because they didn’t know they couldn’t. After leading VMW for over 30 years, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame Industry Pioneers on the Ocean Star Museum in Galveston by the Oilfield Energy Center.

A deeply spiritual man, John lived his faith daily by example. With verses like Psalm 23, Romans 8:28, and Philippians 4:13, he knew God was with him through everything. He was active in his church, serving as a Deacon and Elder at First Presbyterian Church, played a key role in the acquisition and development of the Ark Family Center, and later teaching Sunday School and leading Bible Studies. He and Jere attended First English Lutheran Church later in life. John was active in his communities, always willing to serve and help others. He served on the Victoria Planning Commission, Victoria Sales Tax Development Corporation, worked with Victoria Economic Development Corporation, and the North Street area improvement effort. John was active in the Northside Rotary Club, was a Shriner, a Freemason, mentored in the schools, and advised other people in business. He and several friends served as volunteer chaplains at Citizen’s Medical Center. As a cancer survivor, he spent a lot of time encouraging and praying with fellow cancer patients.

John loved teaching and helping people and seeing them reach their potential. He enjoyed grilling good steaks using his 3-stone method, good tequila, and a good martini and periodically playing the tables in Las Vegas. Later in life, John took up oil painting, sketching, carving, and woodworking. He especially loved his six grandkids and teaching them to build, innovate and invent. Much to Jere’s chagrin, he kept a “junk” pile of miscellaneous parts, cast-offs, and old appliances in his garage for them to build with. Jay and Jill joked that he actively taught his grandkids to do things he used to spank them for doing. Oh, the difference when you’re a grandpa, or “Da,” as his grandkids called him!

John lived and loved life to its fullest. We will celebrate this life and his love with a visitation on Friday evening, June 4, 2021, from 5:00 – 7:00 PM at Colonial Funeral Home, 1801 E Red River St, Victoria, TX 77901, and with a Celebration of Life at 1:00 PM on Saturday, June 5, 2021, at First English Lutheran Church, 516 N Main St, Victoria, TX 77901. The family invites you to come by and visit, laugh, tell stories (even the embarrassing ones!), and remember John with us. It’s summer and the weekend, so please come comfortably – John would have!

As John was always working to help others, if you’d like to honor or remember John, instead of flowers, the family requests you consider donating to Shriner’s Hospitals for Children (https://www.shrinershospitalsforchildren.org/shc) or the charity of your choice. Thank you.