John Perlin Camp Jr.

John Perlin Camp Jr. was born on September 24, 1930 in Tampa, Florida and died on February
16, 2017 in Ft. Pierce, Florida at the age of 86. He is survived by Mary Ann Camp, Jonathan Mark Camp, and Linda Whitman. He was a very good ping-pong play capable of befuddling opponents with a multitude of wicked serves.

John grew up in Tampa and Gainesville, Florida and earned a degree in Mathematics from the University of Florida. He then attended the Southwest Baptist Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas where he earned Masters Degrees in both theology and religious education. After graduation, he drove an old convertible 4,000 miles to Alaska where he worked briefly as a preacher in Eagle River, Alaska before moving to Anchorage and putting his math degree to good use by pursuing a career in civil service running computer systems, first with the City of Anchorage and then with the Federal Aviation Administration.

While living in Alaska, he took up skiing, which became a passion. He also met and married Mary Ann Smarzik and had a son, Jonathan Mark Camp. With Mary Ann, he developed a taste for international travel. Together they visited the USSR and much of Eastern Europe during the height of cold war. In all, he visited at least 54 countries and every US state.

His job offered him and his family the opportunity to move to Washington, DC, Maryland, and Massachusetts during the 1970s, a time when he also developed an affliction that lasted for the next four decades¬¬—golf. In Massachusetts, he became the owner of a 200 year-old farmhouse in a small town where the need to work, commute, cut firewood, and maintain several old wooden building got in the way of golfing.

His retirement in 1993 allowed him to return to his Florida birthplace to pursue travel, ping-pong, tennis and golf full time. He also met Linda who, in his last years, brought him great happiness and taught him that it is good to tip well at restaurants and to hug your son. He got at least three holes-in-one on the golf course.