Obituary of John Michael Gent

John Michael Gent was born on the 16th of April 1925 AD between Coburg and Harrisburg. (The AD stands for all day. His mother took all day to give birth to him is what he shared.) He was the second child and first son of George J. and Ruby M (Grassman) Gent. John was named after each of his grandfathers. His folks moved to Gervais where he lived from 1928 to 1937. Then they moved to Eugene. He attended St. Mary Catholic High School in Eugene. He served in the Army during World War II. He was in Europe for almost three years during his late teens serving with an anti-aircraft unit. Their job was to search the sky for enemy airplanes using binoculars and then highlight them with searchlights. As he said, he was no dummy and took binocular duty. While serving in Germany, he was introduced to a small potato “that would melt in your mouth.” The Fraüleins who cooked for the troops dubbed him “Kartoffelkopf” which means potato head because he liked them so much. He was also quite the flirt in training at the Army base at Camp Callan, California, and when he was in Europe if the collection of all the female photos in his personal photo album is any indication. He took up flying after getting out of the army, flying many times to the coast in a plane that he owned. On one of those trips, through mutual friends, he met his future wife, Tink Rhodes. They were married on the 18th of June in 1950 at St. Monica Catholic Church in Coos Bay. They settled into a house on West 1st Avenue in Eugene. Their first three children were born there before the move out into the country off of Gimpl Hill Road in west Eugene and where the next three children were born. Technically all six children were born in Sacred Heart General Hospital in Eugene. This land primarily had cherry trees and filberts on it with a few apple and pear trees. The cherries were harvested for about twenty-five years until the destruction of the Columbus Day storm in 1962 and the decay of the aging trees made the process not worth it. After getting out of the Army, Johnny worked as a manager of Oregon Seed and Feed. He owned and operated with his father the Baled Shavings Plant. He worked as a glazier for Midgley’s Millwork and Glass and then for MidValley Glass for a total of thirty years. When his services weren’t wanted anymore, he went to join the work force at the paper mill in Halsey until he retired; he worked there for ten years and attained the goal of Rewinder Operator. In retirement he worked at cleaning up the filbert orchard which had gone wild from years of nonuse. He volunteered at St. Vincent’s Theron Atkinson Food Room sorting cans and boxes of food for distribution to the hungry in the area for at least twenty-five years. He also volunteered at another Food Bank on West First. Johnny was a Life member of the Knights of Columbus #1430; he achieved seventy-five years of membership. In his spare time, he was a Toastmaster for ten years. He was a life member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post #293. He liked to bowl and play golf. For a while he dabbled in making stained glass windows. He assisted in many areas of service at his church, St. Mary Catholic Church. He donated over thirteen gallons of blood at Lane Memorial Blood Bank and Red Cross since the 1950s which is more than 100 visits. He loved to play cards, which he inherited from his mother. Cribbage was a favorite game. We knew age was catching up to him when he couldn’t play his usually twelve games in an hour; he was now doing only six games. Johnny died on Monday morning on the sixteenth of March 2020, twelve days after Tink, his wife, had died. He was one month from his ninety-fifth birthday. He is survived by four of his siblings, Fred Gent of Eugene, Jean Gent of Portland, Margaret Carnegie of Kirkland, and Lucille Duncan of Eugene. He is survived by five of his six children. Nora (Dickson) Young of Eugene, Jeanette (Richard Crockett) Gent of Portland, John (Sue) Gent of Vancouver, George who preceded him in death in 2007 (Dianna) Gent of Canby, Matt (Kathy deceased in 2013 and he is soon to wed Meg in 2020) Gent of Vancouver, and Philip (Connie) Gent of Olympia. He has twelve grandchildren and many great-grandchildren. Due to the COVID-19 social distancing restrictions, a private funeral mass will be held in conjunction with Tink’s at Lane Memorial Garden on West 11th Avenue. Musgrove is handling the arrangements. Please sign the guest book. Plans are to have the service live streamed on the Catholic Church-Eugene-St Mary Facebook page on the 20th of March 2020 at 10 am.