Prepared and courtesy of John P. Stevenson on July 21, 1999.

 

John Hughes Stevenson was born was born in Brooklyn, New York on March 4, 1934, the son of Maj. Gen. Charles Goldsmith Stevenson (USMA 1924) and Mair Gwendolyn. He had an older sister Geraldine Mair Stevenson (Mrs. Richard A. Hoek). The family lived in Brooklyn until World War II when they moved to Virginia. After World War II, the family moved to Sayville, Long Island, New York. John attended the public schools there and graduated from Sayville High School in 1951.

During the summer of 1951, he joined the NY National Guard, focusing on the National Guard appointment process for West Point. John turned down a scholarship to Colgate University and attended Bradens Preparatory School in Cornwall-on-Hudson to study for the competitive examination for the National Guard appointment. He achieved that goal and entered West Point with the Class of 1956.

John suffered a knee injury during plebe summer which prevented him from fulfilling his athletic dreams. He did however toil on the B squad football team and earned his monogram.

John married Diane Connor on August 10, 1956, Four children Susan Marie, John Michael, Patricia Marie, and Melinda Marie were born of this union.

After attending officer basic and airborne school, John reported to Germany and served initially with the 10th Division and then the 7th Regiment of the 3rd Infantry Division. During this period John, as a 1st Lieutenant, was assigned as the Regimental S-2 for the Regimental training test. 

He was commended by the regimental commander for his work during the test and his
one year as the S-2. During this period he attended the USAREUR Intelligence School in Oberammergau, Germany.

After his return to the United States in January 1961, John was offered the opportunity to join Honeywell Space Systems to work on inertial components for the Polaris missile system. 

John resigned his commission in May 1961 and immediately joined Honeywell. He spent the next eight years with the Honeywell space team. When the NASA space program began, the Polaris missile guidance system was selected to be upgraded with higher accurate components for use in the Apollo program.

In 1965, Honeywell selected John to spend a year at the Draper Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His task during this period was to insure that the design for the upgraded inertial components could be produced by industry to meet the needs of the space program.

After the year at MIT, John returned to Florida to assist Honeywell in setting up the production lines for the Apollo program components. During that year at MIT, his major task was to rewrite the engineering processes so that they could be manufactured while still maintaining the required accuracy for manned flight.

In 1968, John married Karen Parker Manz and two children were born of this union, Megan Charly Lynn and John Philip Stevenson. Karen’s daughters Kelly Simelavich and Kerri-Ellen Brown also joined the family.

In 1969, John was offered the opportunity to join Control Data Corporation, the super computer manufacturer, in a sales position in Dallas, Texas. He spent 4 months at the corporate headquarters in Minneapolis for training on CDC systems and then returned to Dallas.

Two years later, John returned to Honeywell in their commercial computer division. He joined the sales force in Dallas and then was transferred to the Metropolitan New York area. He was a 100 percent club member of the Honeywell sales force.

In 1976 he joined a small company in suburban Philadelphia, Delta Data Systems. He rose from a salesman to a regional Sales Manager to the National Sales manager over the next twelve years. He first was stationed in New York, then California where he was responsible for sales in the western third of the country. 

He returned from California to the Washington area to take up the sales and service responsibilities for the Intelligence community. During this period he was responsible for the establishment of a sales and service operation in Heodelburg Germany in support of US Forces in Europe. This entailed frequent visits to Europe.

John acquired Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in 1987 which ultimately cause him to become disabled in 1990. He moved with his wife to Florida in 1991, Here he spent his time working on his computer and the internet. He was an original member of the volunteer graduate internet community, West-Point.org. He was the moderator of the USMA 1956 electronic mail service on that community which linked almost one half of the surviving class.

John died on July 18, 1999 in Tarpon Springs, Florida and was interred at the West Point collorbum in the Old Cadet Chapel on July 29, 1999. Part of his remains will be scattered in Wales. He is survived by his wife, mother, sister, eight children and five grandchildren. Rest in Peace.

http://defender.west-point.org/service/display.mhtml?u=20959&i=2543