User:Mcfatty23/John Koop Walsh

John Koop Walsh (1931-2012) was born on March 24, 1931 to John Joseph Walsh and Gladys Koop Walsh in St. Louis Missouri. He received a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Cincinnati in 1955 and worked as a process engineer for the next 50 plus years.

Growing Up
John was born in 1931 to John and Gladys Walsh. He had one older sister, Joann who was born in 1928. The family spent most of their life on a home on Wyoming St. in South St. Louis. They also lived in Lima, Ohio and Indianapolis, Indiana for brief periods before returning to St. Louis in 1940. In 1936 the family moved to Lima. While in Lima, John became ill with Pleurisy and was not able to attend school. John was largely bedridden for the next 2-3 years and was able to teach himself to read in an attempt to occupy his time. This period was the start of John's life long love of learning that continued until his death. In 1938, the family moved to Indianapolis where they found a doctor who was able to treat his Pleurisy. The family then returned to St. Louis where John would live until he left for college in 1949. John attended Roosevelt High school in St Louis. John received a scholarship from Wagner Electric in St. Louis where he also worked as a co-op throughout college. John attended the University of Cincinnati as a mechanical engineering student. While at UC, John met Dorothy Schaefer Walsh whom he would marry in 1957. He was a member of the Phi Kappa Theta Fraternity at UC and met a number of his lifelong friends through the organization. He graduated from UC in 1954 and left for Naval OCS shortly after.

Military Career
John attended OCS in Rhode Island and was commissioned as an Ensign in 1955. John began his career as an engineer and an officer in the Navy at Norfolk Naval Station. He worked for three years from 1955 to 1958 at Norfolk and helped to design a variety of items including a boiler that is still in use in Norfolk and helps to supply steam to the naval station. He was promoted to an Ensign Junior Grade in 1958, shortly before being honorably discharged from the U.S. Navy.

Family Life
John met Dorothy Ann Schaefer in 1954 and they were married on April 27, 1957, at St. Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Norwood, Ohio. They started their life together in Norfolk, Virginia, and welcomed their first daughter, Julie Helen, in Norfolk on February 5, 1958. After being discharged from the Navy, John took a position with National Lead as an engineer and John and Dottie moved back to the Cincinnati area and bought a house in Forest Park. While in Forest Park, they welcomed Thomas John on December 7, 1960 and Jennifer Ann on April 4, 1963. In 1965, Dottie was pregnant with their fourth child and it became apparent that the Forest Park house was not going to be large enough for their growing family. They moved to Mt. Lookout in November of 1965 and shortly after, on December 30, 1965, John Joseph was born. On November 22, 1968, John and Dottie added their final child Michael John to the family. John's family now consists of his wife Dottie; his children Julie (Dick Fairbanks), Tom (Holly), Jenny (Dick Aderman), John (Mary), and Mike (Heather); and his grandchildren Megan (David Johnson) and Mark Fairbanks (the favorite); Max and Quinn Budig; Ellie and Annie Aderman; Katie, Jack, Michael and Charlie Walsh; and Lily and Andrew Walsh.

Career
After leaving the Navy, John returned to Cincinnati to work as an engineer for National Lead in 1958. After National Lead, John worked for Raphael Katzen and Associates in Kennedy Heights. The firm moved to Mt. Lookout Square shortly after John began work. After the firm moved to Mt. Lookout, John and Dottie moved into their home on Crestwood for a larger home and to be closer to work. While at Katzens, John worked with a variety of production factories including pulp and paper mills, distilleries, sugar cane, pollution abatement, and many others. In 1979, John left Katzens to work for PEDCo where he continued to work as a process engineer for a variety of manufacturers. After leaving PEDCo, he worked for Belcan again as a process engineer.

Throughout his various employments, he met a number of people with whom he eventually started a new engineering consultant firm called Process Plus. Process plus was started with a total of six engineers in 1996. The offices were located in Forest Park. Process Plus grew into a fairly large engineering firm with over 70 employees. Process Plus still exists to this day as a process engineering firm that has worked in a variety of industries and is a well known firm. Since Johns retirement, Process Plus continued to grow and change has since changed names to BSI engineering. Today, BSI engineering is a successful engineering firm that works with a variety of industries. John was a member of the board at BSI engineering even after his retirement and was honored with a conference room in his honor at their offices in Blue Ash.

Travel
Hawaii

Pacific Northwest

Canadian Rockies

Washington DC

Paris

Italy

Austria

Switzerland

Germany

Ireland

England

California

Alaskan cruise

Reagan Library

Hilton Head

"Seus-isms", or things that make us think of Seus
"fark"

"warsh"

"R-H-I-P"

"G-- d--- son of a..."

peanut butter and butter toast

when asked if he could be called 'Seus' by his soon-to-be grandson-in-law, he replied, "yes, either that or 'your Majesty'"

labeled flower pots - and a map of all the garden's flowers on graph paper

black coffee in a thermos for work

Jergen's original scent hand lotion

lightening storms

Old Spice

Winston Churchill

Michaelangelo

Sistine Chapel ceiling

Microsoft Excel, for everything... literally...

Mozart

no beer until noon, and never in a can

burning wrapping paper

Suzie

Butter, and then more butter