John Victor Schreiber

John Victor Schreiber, 98, passed away March 22, 2014, in Bellingham, Wash. He had moved from Palmer to be closer to his family.

He was born May 29, 1915, in Lincoln, Ill., the fifth of six children. He became an Eagle Scout during high school and graduated from Lincoln High School in 1934. He left Illinois in 1936 to travel west and attend college in Flagstaff, Ariz.

He held a wide variety of jobs during his life: farmhand, grocery store manager, forestry, construction worker at Excursion Inlet, Juneau and Ketchikan. In addition, he worked on the Hanford Nuclear Plant in Washington state and did general construction in Southern California.

He married Geraldine Stiles in 1940 — in his words, “The prettiest girl in Arizona.”

He decided to complete his teaching degree in 1950 at Northern Arizona University. After graduating from college, he taught school in Arizona and Oregon before moving to Palmer in 1955, where he continued teaching grades five through 12 until 1977. Summer jobs in Alaska gave him many opportunities to travel throughout the state. His hobbies included traveling the world, Civil War history, hunting, fishing, playing cards/games with others, gardening, extensive reading and helping each of his four children build their homes, in addition to having built three homes of his own.

He was preceded in death by all of his siblings and his wife of 66 years, Patricia Geraldine Schreiber in 2006.

He is survived by his four children, Karl Schreiber (Pamela) of Pt. Townsend, Wash., Marjorie Kilgore (John) of Goose Creek, S.C., David Schreiber of Chapel Hill, N.C., and Geraldine (Liz) Day (Garrett) of Bellingham, Wash. He had six wonderful grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.

He was a conservative, honest hard worker and an excellent teacher, and especially loved his dogs. He will be lovingly missed by his family.

A memorial service, at his request, will happen in Palmer at a later date.