E.J. ‘John’ Lair
He was born on January 20, 1920, in Des Moines, Iowa, the only child of Charles E. and M. Deborah Miller Lair. He grew up in West Des Moines and was a 1938 graduate of Valley High School.
In April 1942, he was inducted into the Army, entering active service as a Tech 4 with the 77 Evac Hospital, remaining with that unit through the North African Campaign in Algeria, French Morocco and Tunisia and through the European Theater, which began with a landing on Utah Beach on D-Day, and progressed through Northern France, the Ardennes, Rhineland and Central Europe. He was awarded a Purple Heart Medal and received his discharge in August 1945.
After the war, he joined relatives in Arizona, received his B.A. in Psychology from UCLA in 1954, and during the next few years added Masters Degrees in Psychology and Education to enhance his teaching career in high school science in San Diego, San Francisco and Phoenix, Arizona. Later he entered the doctoral program in English Literature at the University of Colorado, Boulder and completed the course requirements before accepting a teaching position in New York at New Rochelle High School. It was in New Rochelle, where he taught for several years, that he became convinced that high school students and literature formed a most agreeable classroom and career combination for him.
In 1962, while attending a summer program in Literature, at the University of London to update his teaching certification, he met his future wife, Nancy. A few years later, he moved to Indiana to begin a doctoral program in Folklore at Indiana University while substitute teaching at MCCSC. Nancy and John were married at the First Presbyterian Church in Lexington, KY in 1966, moved to Brown County in 1970, and 10-year-old Jay joined the family in 1973. John taught at Smithville High School two years, transferred to BHSN when it opened in 1972, and remained there until his retirement in 1988.
He was a member of the Unitarian-Universalist Church of Bloomington.
Survivors include his wife Nancy Chambers Lair, of Bloomington; one son, Raymond Jay Lair, his wife Michelle McLain Lair, and her son William King, Solsberry; three grandchildren: Joshua Jay Lair, Bloomington; Sarah Elizabeth Lair, Solsberry; Rebekah Nalynn Lair, Freedom; and one great-grandson, Hayden Jay Lair, Bloomington.
At his request services will be private with Reverend Bill Breeden officiating.
The family will receive friends at the Lair home in Bloomington, Saturday, September 15th from 4-7 p.m.
Memorial contributions may be made to the MCCSC Foundation or to WildCare, Inc. Bloomington, or to a charity of choice.