John David Foos Jr.

JD (David, Dave) was born in Portland, Oregon to John and Carolyn Foos on Sept 21, 1950. Kay remembers
that on the day he was born, John was so excited to have a boy! I remember JD telling me
stories of fishing with his Dad.

They lived in Portland until JD's senior year in high school (1967) when they moved to
Enumclaw, WA.

After graduation, he completed a 3 month music scholarship at Green River Community
College in Auburn, WA. From what I've been told, (he would never brag on himself!) he was
a highly talented trombone player. He loved the drums and guitar, too, and basically all
types of music -- he always thought music had a language of its own and that no matter what
genre it was, if it spoke to your heart then it was good.

In Nov 1969, he joined the US Naval Reserves and was ordered to active duty in 1970 until
he was honorably discharged in 1971 having received a National Defense Service Metal
and remained in the Naval Reserves until 1975. If you knew JD, you know that he never
liked the bureaucracy of the government, but he loved this country, was honored to serve,
and always continued to fight for veteran's rights and services. That issue was one of his
main political interests.

After his military service, between 1973 and 1985 he attended Highline Community College
(Highline, WA) and Bates Technical Institute (Tacoma, WA) where he graduated as a
metal machinist, and Clover Park Vocational Technical School (Tacoma, WA) where he
completed the 4th Class Steam Operators class.

From 1986 until 2000, he worked at McChord AFB, Tacoma WA in Civil Service in shipping and
receiving and grounds maintenance.

He moved to Port Ludlow, WA in 1998 and to Port Orchard, WA in 2002 where he lived with
his wife of nearly 17 years until his death on Dec 28, 2016.

He is survived by his mother, Carolyn; his sisters: Marta, Avis and Leah; his nieces: Joelle,
Brynne and Rebecca; his nephews: Jordan and Scott; his sisters-in-law: Karen, Jeannie,
Sarah and Debbie; his brothers in law: Ron, Steve, Joe, George and Dale; his wife, Leslie
and his dog Sadie plus many special friends that he counted as family - among them is
Kathleen, Mary and Ed, Daniel, Ron, Karla and Anne.

In nearly 18 years that I knew him, he accomplished so much--he was 11 years sober, 9 years
a non-smoker, he conquered his demons, fought tirelessly for veteran's, women's, environmental,
LGBT, homeless people's and animal's rights, services and protection, found God (My Brother,
he called Him) and never quit learning, growing and expanding his knowledge.

He was his own person and always held strong opinions, but he would fight to the death
to protect one's right to hold different ones. He loved to celebrate diversity in all parts of
life and believed we were all connected. He always rooted for the underdog and was always
at the ready to help anyone that he could. He was never impressed by wealth or power,
but was easily impressed by one's character, talents and actions toward those less
fortunate.

His favorite place to be was home with me and his dog, Sadie. He also cherished becoming
closer to his family and spending precious time with them. He was so grateful that he and
his Mom laughed and spoke so often and were so close in the end. He was always so proud
of his sisters and so happy that his nieces and nephews were allowed to be their own people
and were all fulfilling their own dreams and aspirations. His heart was filled only
with love. He always counted his blessings and never took a day for granted.

He loved to laugh - his big belly laugh filled a room and was so contagious! I can't tell you
how many times we would laugh so hard we couldn't breathe!! He somehow always found
the silver lining---even in the end. Moments of despair and fear were always dispelled and
quickly replaced with peace, love and joy at being given a new day! He always let those he
loved know it and never took me or our love and commitment for granted. He taught me
so much about how to get up when you’ve been knocked down and to never quit fighting the good fight. His first and last words every day were "Thank You, my Brother, for another day!"

We were both always our own people and had a list of "agree to disagree" items because
both of us applauded authenticity and would never want to be placated, but together we
were almost unstoppable! We liked to think of ourselves as "perfectly imperfect" because
our whole was so much greater than the sum of our parts. We often mused how with him,
me and God together, no one had a chance against us!!

I am so proud to have been his wife and so proud of the man he was--he was my hero.
I will carry him with me forever and always until we meet again….we hope earlier next
time! He is with his Brother and at peace now.

Thank you all for being in his life, for all the love and support you gave him and me and
for sharing yourselves with us.

As he would have said, "Peace and Love"