John Verl Tunison

John was born in The Dalles, Oregon in 1947 to Verl and Lilian Tunison. Moving to Maupin at the age of 3. At 5 years Lilian brought John to Bath, England to live for 6 months, leaving a lasting impression of his time abroad. As a young man John learned to speak Latin while attending Catholic school, which he proudly used throughout his life. In high school he was a member of the Central High Science Club. John was a performer at heart. While attending Mount Angel Seminary in Oregon, with thoughts of the priesthood for about a year, he found the guitar and taught himself how to play very well. Playing and singing became an integral part of his life going forward, from writing a folk mass for a Christian youth group in college, to playing in his midlife at gatherings and cast parties of the community theater productions he was in. At the age of 22, John enlisted in the United States Navy in 1969, scoring high in aptitude for foreign languages, he was placed to be a translator learning Chinese, but his training was cut short and he was honorably discharged in 1971 due to a back injury after slipping on some ice. He attended college at Portland State in the early 1970s, where he had a head for numbers, acquiring his Bachelor of Science in Accounting. From there John worked for Bingham-Willamette for many years in the Portland area. In the 1980s, John expanded his musical and theatrical experiences performing in many local community theater productions from Portland to Vancouver. Two of his most memorable roles were "Lazar Wolf" in "Fiddler On The Roof" and "The Grand Pooh-Bah'' from "The Mikado". Productions included; Gilbert and Sullivan's "The Mikado", "Princess Ida" and "Iolanthe" performed at the Studio Lyric Theater, in Portland, Oregon, as well as "Jesus Christ Superstar", "South Pacific", "A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum", "Kismet" and "A Night On The Town". John, along with his wife Molly, also produced, "A Night with Stephen Sondheim-A Compilation". In the latter years of his life, John blended his skills to match his work. He mixed his experience of performing and his background in accounting, while employed with Tyler Technologies. As a traveling trainer of accounting software, John trained hundreds of people and traveled all over the West Coast throughout his years with Tyler, from which he would retire in the mid-2000s. John was a beloved husband, brother, father, grandfather and friend, he was known to all that knew him, as the kindest of men. He was well known for having a very wry sense of humor, and no one loved a good pun as well as John...he could be a groan-worthy punster. John was an avid fan of Star Trek since its inception and watched it lifelong. John's past times throughout his life included golfing, PC games, a love of puzzles, both jigsaw puzzles and word puzzles. John passed away at home on June 2nd 2023, aged 76 years. He was preceded in death by his parents, Verl and Lilian Tunison and his younger brother, Brian. John is survived by his spouse Molly Flanagan, his daughter Theresa Burlong and spouse Rune, son Mark Tunison and spouse Sandra, step-daughter Megan Henslee and spouse Steve, siblings Patricia McKenzie, Timothy Tunison and Leanne Motsinger, grand-daughter Briana Tunison and step-grandson Ian Foster, as well as former wife Anita Oakley. If you have any kind words or remembrances, please share a memory on the Tribute Wall.

John Verl Tunison

May 1, 1947 - June 2, 2023