John R. Lawson ’63 died on April 5, 2017, in Bloomington, Indiana.

(The following appeared online at allencares.com in April 2017:)

John Lawson, 75, of Bloomington, died on Wednesday, April 5 at Bloomington Hospital. He was born on August 14, 1941 in Hartford, Connecticut to Robert and Kathryn Carmody Lawson.

John grew up in Granby, Connecticut and after serving in the U.S. Army, graduated from Bowdoin College in 1967. As a graduate student in modern Russian and East European History at Indiana University, he met Julia Karin Hoffmann. They married on March 21, 1969. John worked for the Department of the Army for 25 years, retiring in 2001.

Upon moving back to Bloomington in 2002, John began an active retirement. His activities included volunteering with the VITAL tutoring program at Monroe County Public Library, the Lotus Education and Arts Foundation, and serving on the boards of B’Town Jazz and the Unitarian Universalist Church of Bloomington. An avid cyclist, he completed the Hilly Hundred several times, and enjoyed music, theater, and IU soccer.

His wife, Julia, survives him along with his son, Robert, daughter-in-law, Suzanne Dell’Orto, and granddaughter Nina; son David and daughter-in-law, Bridget Gavaghan; and his sisters Kathryn Scully, Joanne Lawson, and Julia Shirey. He is preceded in death by his parents and by his sisters, Molly West and Lulie Woods.