John Alvin Rath's Obituary
Obituary for John Alvin Rath
February 5, 1941 - December 20, 2024
John Alvin Rath was born in Cuero, Texas on February 5, 1941, to Olga Caroline Koehler Rath and Edward Arthur Rath, when his twin brother and sister, Fred Arthur Rath and Carolyn Ann Rath were five years old. Shortly after his birth, his family moved to Orange, Texas to go where the jobs were in the shipyards during WWII. Lucky for him, they made the move to Orange, where he met what would become the love of his life Sue Amacker when he was 5 years old riding their bikes together to Sunday school – he didn’t know it then of course. Ten years later John, Fred and Carolyn got a new sibling when Olga and Edward gave birth to Norma Jean Rath, he adored his baby sister and used to joke that she messed up their perfect name acronyms – FAR, CAR, and JAR. John Rath loved a good joke and rarely missed an opportunity to add a little sarcasm to any situation.
John was a Boy Scout where he earned the highest rank of Eagle Scout. In the Boy Scouts he developed his lifelong love for camping, fishing and hunting. He also learned many of the problem-solving, building, and life skills he would bring to his family and friends over his lifetime. He graduated from Lutcher Stark High School in 1959 and always remarked how close his graduating class was through the years, and valued the friendships he'd made early in life.
John was a true-blue friend to so many throughout his life. He never met a stranger and had a way of connecting with people instantaneously. He would be there in less than a heartbeat if you were ever in need - whether your drain was clogged (he had a snake), your electric wiring was on the fritz (he had schematics), or you needed to accomplish anything that required building or fixing something because you couldn’t afford a professional – you got one for free in John Rath and you always got a better and more clever solution than if you had hired it out. The only price you had to pay was to hear him talk about it and reference it for years to come. He absolutely loved being able to come up with that clever solution.
After John graduated high school, he went into the Airforce in September of 1959, serving his country for four years. He slept underneath their airplane in the hanger in Florida during those tenuous days in the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis waiting for the orders from President Kennedy for a military response to Khrushchev attempting to send nuclear weapons on Russian war ships to Cuba.
Once he completed his service in the Airforce, he went to work with Texas Instruments, traveling the world and leveraging his military experience and creative problem-solving skills as a data communications engineer. He is most proud of the work he did with TI as part of Project Muddy Hill (now declassified) partnering with the US military to help advance their capabilities in infrared technologies and EO systems by testing and operationally evaluating these systems in a combat environment in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. John repeatedly received awards and recognition each year for his efficiency and improvement ideas and retired from TI after more than 45 years of service.
On August 17, 1968, John married the love of his life Sue. They celebrated 51 years of marriage before her passing in 2020. Sue and John had two children, Laura Nicole (Nikki) and John Cedric (Ceddie). John was a loving and devoted father who passed on many of his Mr. Fix It and creative solution skills to his children by always having them involved in many a project over the years. He instilled his love of the outdoors, camping, hiking, fishing, water skiing, and hunting through their regular camping adventures. Family vacations were always spent at a campsite on a lake and in the boat, either on skis or with a fishing rod in hand. John was extremely proud of his children.
He was Opa to his grandchildren and enjoyed spending time with them, trading dad jokes with his granddaughter Charlie, teaching Caden to shoot, and Caden, Charlie and John to fish. He was always up for an adventure – snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef with Caden or hiking to the top of the Barrenjoey Light House with John and Charlie. And he loved playing games be it Mexican Train, Yahtzee or Skip-Bo. And he never let you win, no matter how old you were! John loved woodworking and made many a candle holder, memo set holder and name badges for family, friends, and friends of friends. If you have a John Rath original work, you know you are special to him.
John was always a devoted caregiver to friends and family. When the love of his life was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s he sprung into action, learning everything he could and getting them involved in the amazing resources and programs for patients and their caregivers across Dallas. He was Sue’s sole caregiver for 13 years while the disease progressed, and always handled the situation with pragmatism and deep love and care for her. He made close friendships through those programs that he carried through up until the end.
He is survived by his sister, Norma Vanlandingham, his daughter, Laura Nicole (Nikki) Rath, his son-in-law Robert Jason Crouch, his nieces, Cheryl Rath Boyette, Mimi Rath Ehring, Koehler VanLandingham, Kelly Powley Smith,and Kim Meyer Holland, and with her nephews Steven Mohon, Scott Mohon, Kyle VanLandingham, David Powley, and Michael Meyer. He is also survived by his grandchildren he adored, Caden Nicholas Crouch, Charlie Koehler Crouch, John Robert Crouch and Emmarsyn Anderson. He was preceded in death by his father, Edward Arthur Rath, his mother Olga Koehler Rath, his brother, Fred Rath, his sister, Carolyn Mohon, his niece, Katrinka Massheder, his nephew, Charles Rath, and his son, John Cedric (Ceddie) Rath.
In lieu of flowers the family requests a donation in John and Sue’s honor to AWARE, an organization dedicated to fighting Alzheimer’s and supporting those in the day to day fight in the North Texas community through direct grants. You can donate through the following link: https://www.awaredallas.org/donate/
PLEASE SEE RESCHEDULED SERVICE DATE/TIME DUE TO WEATHER:
A visitation will take place on Friday, January 17, 2025, at 9:30 AM at Restland's Wildwood Chapel, located in the middle of the cemetery at 13005 Greenville Ave., Dallas, TX 75243. The funeral service will begin subsequently at 10:30 AM, where the burial will follow at the conclusion of the service at approximately 11:30 AM in the Court of Reflections.
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