OSWEGO, NY – John Harris Schumacher, 94, passed away on Thursday December 19, 2013, at Levine & Dickson Hospice House in Charlotte, North Carolina.
He was born on December 10, 1919, in New York City to Benjamin and Bessie Schumacher.
John grew up in the Bronx, New York, and Poughkeepsie, New York.
He graduated from Poughkeepsie High School in 1937.
After high school he attended the City University of New York for one year before transferring to the New York State School of Forestry at Syracuse University.
He graduated in 1943, earning a Bachelor of Science degree with honors in the Alpha Xi Sigma Society.
Following college, John enlisted in the U.S. Navy and served for three years, achieving the rank of Lieutenant Commander.
In harm’s way during World War II, he performed many dangerous daylight missions throughout the Mediterranean aboard a mine-sweeper.
After the war he worked for two years for Firestone Rubber in Liberia, West Africa, before returning to Upstate New York to continue his career, this time in wholesale lumber.
In the early 1960s he started his own successful lumber brokerage, John H. Schumacher, Inc. in Liverpool, New York.
John went into retirement and relocated to Charlotte, North Carolina, in 1984.
Throughout his life, he was active in many professional, social and community programs including the Northeastern Retail Lumber Association, Lions Club International and a docent at the Mint Museum of Art in Charlotte.
John was preceded in death by his parents and two sisters, Florence and Muriel (Mitzi).
He is survived by his loving wife, Irene E. Pryor Schumacher, of Charlotte, North Carolina; and son, Bret J. Schumacher, of Chapel Hill, North Carolina; three step-children, Alan Miller, Charlotte, Timothy (Pam) Miller, Hastings, New York, and Susan (Rich) Leary, Winston-Salem, North Carolina; nine step-grandchildren; and four step-great-grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m.on Friday, May 16, at the Chapel at the Riverside Cemetery in Oswego.
The Reverend Bruce Schrader will officiate.
Arrangements are in care of the Dain-Cullinan Funeral Home, Oswego.
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