John Joseph (Jack) Kearns

The family of John Joseph (Jack) Kearns, is saddened to announce his death on December 26, 2025, in Casper, Wyoming from complications associated with gastric antral vascular ectasia (GAVE Syndrome). Born August 31, 1939 in Akron, Ohio to Dorothy (Dane Davidson) and Thomas P. Kearns, Jack was raised a Catholic but became a skeptic of religion by the time he Graduated from Brecksville High School in 1957. He was an athletic young man, playing football in High School and Soccer in college. He met his future wife, Biruta (Zarins) in the music listening lounge at Ohio State University. After he graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Geology, the young couple eloped and were married by a Justice of the Peace on June 13, 1961. In order to avoid the draft, Jack joined the Air Force as a 2nd Lieutenant. He thoroughly enjoyed the military, drawing maps of Russian targets from U2 spy plane photographs and delivering launch codes to nuclear missile sites. He was discharged in 1966 and went to work in the uranium mines in New Mexico. Always seeking change and adventure, Jack took a position with the International Atomic Energy Agency and transferred his family to Pakistan in search of uranium. They were living in Lahore when the Bangladesh war broke out in 1971. He loved to tell stories of evacuating the family in a United Nations convoy through the Khyber Pass and into Kabul, Afghanistan then spending Christmas in Tehran, Iran in the days before the Islamic Revolution.

Upon returning to the States, he experimented in the hippie sub-culture, refurbishing an old school house in Wapato, Washington, raising livestock and gardening, but that lifestyle did not suit him so he got back into geology, working in Utah, Colorado, and Wyoming. He was able to retire early from corporate employment and ran a small rental business in Casper spending his free time traveling to Canada, Alaska, Peru, and camping extensively throughout the western US. His favorite pastimes were remodeling homes, building barns, greenhouses, saunas, and solar heating systems. He had a deep love of the natural world and a keen interest in human history and was known to enjoy an occasional cigar outdoors next to a fire.

John is preceded in death by his parents, brothers Terrence and Thomas, sister Judith, son Edward, and grandson Diamond (Wiseman). He is survived by his wife, son Gregory, daughter Susan, grandsons Jai (Kamhout-Kearns), Asher (Wiseman), and Zackery (Kearns) as well as many nephews and nieces. No services are scheduled.