- Date Of Birth: April 26, 1931
- Date Of Death: February 27, 2020
- State: Maryland
Ferndale, MD – John N.
Jack was the son of Ethel (Kohlhaas) Furniss and William Furniss, and grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Jack was the middle son of the other two children. He was a rather quiet and obedient young man. His parents were supportive, stern, and proper with regards to manners and hard work. They instilled in Jack a work ethic that would serve him well throughout his life.
Growing up Jack enjoyed singing. He sang in his local Lutheran church and in A Capella choir. In high school he was also a cheerleader.
Some of Jack’s jobs during his high school years included being a land surveyor’s assistant and a caddie at a local golf course. Around that time, his brother asked him to go on a double-blind date. Lois and Bill Furniss helped him meet Donna Gibson, and soon they fell in love. Like his father and brother, he began working at Westinghouse in Pittsburgh and was called into selective service, whereupon he chose the Air Force. Jack married Donna in Pittsburgh on May 3, 1952, and Jack would eventually be stationed in Wichita, Kansas for close to three years, where they had the first child, Nancy. When Jack’s service time was completed, he was able to rejoin Westinghouse and was transferred to Baltimore’s new plant in Linthicum, Maryland. After a few years of renting apartments in the area, they purchased a brand-new home on Shipley Road in Linthicum, where they remained for 43 years.
At Westinghouse Jack was the go-to man for new, tough and detailed projects. During his time there he was part of several patents. Often, he worked on classified projects. Some highlights of his design work included various jet radars, electronic countermeasure pods, and a military tank radar. He worked on the lunar lens camera and satellite in the early 1960’s. He was the first draftsman to be trained on computer aided design programs at Westinghouse. Jack had a “never give up” attitude, coupled with the ability to fix or build almost anything. The family’s first color television and hi-fi stereo were ones he built from scratch.
Jack would say the most important event that ever happened to him was when Donna saw an opportunity to have her family return to her childhood church camp outside of Uniontown, called Jumonville. This proved to be a pivotal, life-changing event for the entire family. It was there where Jack was confronted with the reality of “being born again”, as Christ described to Nicodemus. This involved transforming the intellectual knowledge of faith in God to a commitment of life-changing faith — giving one’s life and submitting fully to Christ. This is what Jack and Donna’s legacy would be for the second half of their lives together.
Throughout these years, Jack would mentor young men in Bible studies and prayer.
