John Ades Obituary
John Irvine "Jack" Ades, 86, died at 8:30 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 3 at his home. He was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1925, the son of the late John Amos and Edith (Green) Ades.
He married Constance Lee Wallett in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, in August 1950. She preceded him in death on April 13, 2011.
He was educated in the Cincinnati Public Schools and subsequently at Middlebury College, Johns Hopkins University and the University of Cincinnati, from which he received his Ph.D. in 1963.
For 40 years he taught English and biblical studies, the last 32 of them at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, where he was chairman of the English Faculty in the ’60s and ’70s. He previously taught at the College of Wooster in Ohio, Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and at the University of Cincinnati.
He served three years in the U.S. Navy during World War II, some of the time as a quartermaster and navigator aboard the USS LCI(R) 1029 in the Pacific.
In 1971-72, he was a visiting scholar at Westminster College and the Divinity School of Cambridge University in Cambridge, England. He was the author of numerous scholarly papers and three books; "The Pizza Plot" (1989), "The Church on North Kansas Street" (1993) and the "Mattress Game" (1999).
For 15 years he was Fine Arts Critic for the Alton Telegraph. In the ’80s and ’90s, he was a frequent contributor to The Christian Science Monitor and other newspapers.
He was a long-time member of the First Presbyterian Church in Edwardsville, in which he was an ordained elder and frequent lay preacher. He was a member of the College English Association, The Charles Lamb Society (London), Phi Kappa Phi (honorary academic society), and, until his retirement in 1990, of the Wordsworth Circle and the Modern Language Association of America.
On the lighter side, he was a life-long tennis player and member of the United States Tennis Association and, beginning in the ’60s, banjoist in the Old Guys Dixieland Jazz Band, a faculty musical organization at Southern Illinois University.
Surviving are three daughters, Margaret Ades (Rick) Pearson of Naperville, Ill., Elizabeth Lee Aston (Richard) of Lake St. Louis, Mo., and Susan Ades (Daniel) Harman of Barnhart, Mo.; seven grandchildren, Amanda and Katherine Pearson, Matthew, Nicholas and Joshua Aston, and Alexander and Elizabeth Mills; and one great-grandson, Zander Mills.
Besides his wife and parents, John was preceded in death by a sister, Kathleen Berning.
According to his wishes, his body was donated to the Anatomical Gift Association of Illinois in Chicago. A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. on Friday, Nov. 11 at the First Presbyterian Church in Edwardsville with Dr. John Hembruch officiating. Visitation will be from 9:30 to 11 a.m. on Friday at the church.
Memorials may be given to the First Presbyterian Church, 237 N. Kansas, Edwardsville, Ill. or the American Parkinson’s Disease Association, 660 S. Euclid, Campus Box 811, St. Louis, MO 63110.
Weber Funeral Home in Edwardsville is handling the arrangements. Condolences may be expressed online at www.weberfuneralhome.com.