John Robert Goodwillie entered chapter eternal on Dec. 16, 2022 in Corpus Christi, Texas. He had been living at the Mirador retirement community for the past 11 years. Previously, he had resided in the Texas hill country of Horseshoe Bay. He was born Sept. 2, 1934 to Rosella Smalldon and John Erwin Goodwillie in Beloit, Wis. He attended Beloit public school, graduated from Lake Forest Academy, Ill., Colgate University, N.Y., and the Advanced Management Program, Harvard Business School, Mass. In 1958, he married Lalla J. Peterson, of Crystal Lake, Ill.

John served as a U.S. Naval officer aboard the light cruiser, USS Worcester CL 144, for two years in the Pacific, followed by a year as an instructor of gunfire support in Coronado, Calif. He worked for over 35 years in the pulp and papermaking machinery business, principally in sales and general management positions, culminating as Group Vice President for Beloit Corporations, with responsibilities for five operating divisions of the company.

Later, he served as CEO and President of Andritz Sprout Bauer, Inc, from which he retired in 1996. He was a director of the Pulp and Paper Machinery Manufacturers Association (USA), and served one year as its President. He was active in the Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry.

In retirement, he was honored to serve as a director for the Admiral Nimitz Foundation, Fredericksburg, Texas, for several years, and also as CASA volunteer for children in the Texas Highland Lake region.

He was a devoted Presbyterian, serving first as a Sunday school teacher, and later, as an elder at several locations, most recently, the First Presbyterian Church of Corpus Christi. He possessed and appreciated a good sense of humor. He enjoyed, but never mastered both, tennis and golf, was a longtime fan of the Chicago Cubs, and an unabashed backer of the Green Bay Packers.

He was predeceased by a daughter, Paula G. Tate in 2013; and by his wife, Lalla (Peterson), after 58 years of marriage, in 2016. He liked to say he had been "very lucky in love, labor, and life," but later conceded it wasn't luck at all, but rather guidance from above.

Mr. Goodwillie is survived by his second wife, Jane Killian Smith, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, whom he married in 2020; a daughter, Amy G. (Stephen) Lipkin; two sons, John P. Goodwillie and Charles L. Goodwillie; son-in-law, Ira Tate; a granddaughter, Allie L. Greenberger; three grandsons, John F. Goodwillie, Ian M. (Haley) Goodwillie, and Chase A. Tate; and one sister, Susan G. Edwards.

Services are pending. Burial will be in an ancestral cemetery in Barnet, Vt.