John Darwin Vandervort Obituary

John “Jack” Vandervort, 85, of Maplewood, MN, went to be with his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ on June 8, 2023. He was born in Minneapolis, MN on March 20, 1938, the son of Darwin and Eveyln (Nyholm) Vandervort.

Jack would often say that we base our faith on the truths of Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning, God created….” He had confidence in our great Creator! His life verse was Philippians 1:6 – “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ,” and he also took great comfort in Jude 24-25 - “Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.”

Jack attended Washburn High School in Minneapolis and ran track. In the spring of his senior year he set the Washburn mile record of 4:40.2 which stood for about 10 years. Following his graduation in 1956, he attended the U of MN for pre-engineering. After only one quarter, he took a fulltime job at a civil engineering firm. June 14, 1957, he met Beverly Matson on a blind date and they were married on December 14, 1957. Jack and Bev had three daughters, Pam, Cindy and Brenda, and he wrote that his proudest family memories were watching his daughters succeed and mature.

Jack served our country in the National Guard for 14 years, finishing as a First Lieutenant, Division Subsistence Officer. He held a variety of design/system engineering jobs over the years: the Minnesota State Highway Department (he designed freeway interchanges!), 3M (St Paul), Lanier Worldwide (Atlanta), Business Methods, Inc (Rochester, NY). He holds 3 patents for parts still used in printer/copiers today. He also volunteered his computer programming expertise to provide a system for aircraft service management for New Tribes Mission Aviation (Arizona) and later for Cardinal Pointe of Maplewood, their senior cooperative living community where he served on the board for 6 years.

Jack’s earliest memories were of riding in cars. He dreamed early on of owning his own car and at a young age he could identify almost any car he saw. Throughout his life he blessed many people by working on, and fixing their cars. In addition to cars, Jack held a wide range of interests, including travel, creation science, photography, carpentry, music (especially pipe organ) and computers/technology. He could build just about anything from a redwood canoe to his own house. In “retirement,” he designed and built their home in St. Paul.

He deeply loved his family and prayed for them daily. His greatest desire was for all his family and friends to come to know and trust Jesus as Savior.

Jack is survived by his loving wife of nearly 66 years, Bev
Daughters: Pam (Barry) Larson, Cindy (Brad) Nelson and Brenda

Grandchildren: Matthew (Ali) Larson, David (Emma) Larson, Sara (Dave) Merritt, Jacob (Krista) Larson, Michael (Caroline) Nelson; Leah Nelson, Abbie (Alec) Schwartz, Emma Nelson

Great-grandchildren: Benjamin, Avery, Anders, Lena, Henry, Silas, Thompson, baby Merritt due September, Arlo, Pippa, Soren

Sister: Ginny (Ken) Nelson

Preceded in death by his parents, Darwin & Evelyn Vandervort, his sister Grace Beck, and great grandson Joshua Larson.

A Memorial Service for the life of Jack Vandervort will be held July 22, 2023 at 11:00am at The North Church, 5151 Program Avenue, Mounds View, Minnesota. Visitation prior to the service at 10:00am.

Memorials preferred to Gideons International or The Institute for Creation Research.

Family and friends are welcome to leave their condolences on this memorial page and share them with the family.