John W.R. Pope, Jr.

John W.R. Pope, Jr., Captain, U.S. Navy (ret), died on July 26, 2023 in Tacoma, Washington, after a very brief illness. He was born on May 15, 1931 to John W.R. and Gladys Perry Pope, and was raised on a cotton farm near Jackson, TN along with his brothers, Bill and Perry, and his sister, Anne.

John graduated from the University of Tennessee where he was in the Reserve Officer Candidate program. He served in the Navy for 22 years, including three tours as a Chinese linguist and four years at the Naval Postgraduate School, where he earned his PhD in Electrical Engineering. He then had a number of assignments in the Naval Security Group and completed his military career at the Naval Electronic Systems Command as Program Manager for Navy satellite communications.

John retired from the Navy in 1977 and joined Western Union as head of microwave and satellite engineering. Later promotions were to Executive VP and Chief Operating Officer (COO), and later still to President and COO. In 1998, John retired and the family moved to Carmel Valley, CA.

John married Hilda Anne Hazo in 1956. They had four children: Patti (David Gluss), Mary (Jim Williams), John W.R. III (Dawn McGann) and Pamela (tragically lost to brain cancer at 18). Hilda passed away in 2001. After a period, John married Hilda’s lifelong friend, Betty Ann Patterson, and moved to Tacoma, WA. Betty Ann passed in 2019. John has ten grandchildren, all of whom enjoyed spending time with their Granddaddy.

John had an insatiable curiosity and was a lifelong dedicated, inquisitive person. Breakfast discussions might last three hours and range from America’s Founding Fathers to the roads and outposts of the Roman Empire to linguistics to using fifth order correlation functions to model the stock market. He read the Economist magazine cover to cover with pen in his hand to underline important items to share with the family when they came to see him. Needless to say, spending time with John was a joy and certainly never boring.

Visitation will be held at Lawrence-Sorensen Funeral Home on September 29, 2023 from 4pm-6pm. Services will be held at Harris Grove Church, Jackson, TN on September 30, 2023 at 10am, followed by a Navy Color Guard and graveside service at Hollywood Cemetery, in Jackson, TN. John will be buried next to his wife Hilda, his daughter, his brothers and his parents. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to be made to the Habitat for Humanity.