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- According to Martha Amo, John Pullen graduated from high school in Jerome, AZ.
- A brief biographical sketch in his Findagrave memorial states:
"Graduated from the United States Merchant Marine Academy in 1950. Worked for the Waterman Steamship Company and reached the rank of Captain. In 1965 took a position with the U.S. Maritime Administration in San Francisco and then transferred to Portland, Oregon in 1983. In 1995, he retired."
- Obituary, Portland [OR] Tribune (31 Mar 2016):
"John W. Pullen, a longtime resident of Lake Oswego, died peacefully March 26 [2016] at the age of 88 after a brief illness. He was born in Bisbee, a copper mining town in southern Arizona, where his father was a mining engineer. During the Depression, his family moved to El Paso and later to Jerome, another mining town in Arizona, where John graduated from high school. He graduated from the United States Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, NY in 1950.
"He went to work for Waterman Steamship Co. during the last heyday of the U.S. maritime industry. Sailing Pacific Rim routes, John quickly rose through the officer ranks to become one of the company's youngest captains. He captained cargo ships that supplied the rebuilding of Japan and supplied U.S. forces in the Korean and Vietnam conflicts. While ashore in California in 1955, his father Jack arranged a blind date on John's birthday with Ellen Pidgeon, a childhood friend from Bisbee. They married in January 1957 and lived in John's home port of San Francisco, before moving to the suburb of San Mateo in 1958. Son Michael was born that year, followed by daughters Elizabeth in 1960 and Bonnie in 1964.
"Wanting to spend more time with family and avoid the dangers of wartime Vietnam, in 1965 John accepted a position with the U.S. Maritime Administration in San Francisco. He worked to promote U.S. ports and American shipping on the West Coast. In 1983 he accepted a transfer to open an office for the agency in Portland. He and Ellen moved to Lake Oswego, settling in the Mountain Park neighborhood. He retired from the federal government in 1995 at age 67.
"Outside of his family, John's greatest passion was neighborhood activism. The issue that first interested him was saving the last undeveloped mountain [Sugarloaf Mountain] in San Mateo.
"John helped lead a successful effort to prevent a subdivision from being built on it. The city eventually bought the land and preserved it as open space.
"After moving to Oregon, John shifted his attention to Lake Oswego neighborhood issues. He monitored the city's budget and worked with others in the Lake Oswego Neighborhood Action Coalition to preserve the city's livability.
"Throughout his life, John enjoyed the company of many cats, dogs, and turtles, as well as dozens of wild birds and squirrels who visited his backyard. He kept them all well fed. Nearly every animal he came in contact with gained weight.
"He was a generous soul who enjoyed family gatherings, time with neighbors and relatives, and his children's friends and families.
"In addition to his wife and children, John is survived by his sister Barbara Kuhn (Jack Kuhn, Tucson), sister-in-law Mildred Jett (Phoenix), daughter-in-law Saundra Stevens, step grandson Evan Wark, and nieces Ellen Dreyer, Madalyn Epple, Julie Jett, Marilyn Majerczyk, and Anna Pidgeon, and nephews Ted Brooks, Jr., Bob Kuhn, Tom Kuhn, Guy Tidwell, John Tidwell, and Stephen Tidwell. Remembrances can be made in his name to the Oregon Humane Society...." [ see: http://portlandtribune.com/obit/50-lor-obituaries/300046-177793-john-william-pullen- ]
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