John R. Preston

John Ross Preston, beloved brother, father, and grandfather died on October 5, 2022, at the age of 75. 

 

John was born in Benton Harbor, Michigan, on January 17, 1947, along with his twin sister, Susan, to Thomas and Harriet Preston. His father was a World War II veteran who participated in the D-Day landings on the beaches of Normandy. John and his five siblings spent their childhood in St. Joseph, Michigan, where John grew up playing tennis, swimming on the swim team and sailing on the lake.

 

He attended the University of Michigan, where he met his future wife, Janet Huang, at a party. They married in Ann Arbor in 1970. 

 

John left Michigan for a period to attend the Department of Defense’s Language Institute, where he studied Spanish. After a posting in Panama, John and Janet drove north, across Central America and Mexico, and back through the United States. 

 

After John graduated from Michigan in 1973 with a BA in History, he and Janet moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he attended Harvard Business School, earning his MBA in 1975. 

 

They spent their early married years in New York City, and as a young family, moved to San Juan, Puerto Rico, before settling in Westport, Connecticut, where they lived for nearly two decades, raising three children and building a vibrant community of lasting friendships. They returned each summer to St. Joseph, Michigan, where John grew up. 

 

Professionally, John had an accomplished career in corporate finance. He spent 21 years at The Seagram Company in New York, culminating in his role as Senior Vice President and Treasurer. In 2004, John and Janet relocated to Miami where he spent 14 years at Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits as Vice President of Finance and Administration. He was deeply respected by his colleagues who valued his strong moral compass, dry wit and his commitment to mentorship as much as his skills in strategic, operational and financial planning. Many of John’s coworkers would become dear and lifelong friends.

 

In 2016, after 46 years of marriage, Janet passed away, losing a long and heartbreaking battle with dementia.  

 

In 2020, John moved to Portland, Oregon, in close proximity to his son and daughter-in-law and just a block from his older daughter and her family. He enjoyed family dinners most nights and attended nearly all of his granddaughters’ games and activities. During the pandemic, John’s other daughter and her family came to live with him. For almost a year, all of John’s children and grandchildren lived within a few miles of each other and spent time together daily.  

 

John was an avid golfer and voracious reader. He loved Shakespeare, the classics, American and British history, the history of war – particularly the Civil War and the Revolutionary War – and any biography of Abraham Lincoln. He maintained a lifelong love of speaking Spanish. A true autodidact, he never stopped learning.

 

In recent years, John and his family returned to summering in Michigan where he made a practice of taking his five granddaughters for ice cream every day.  

 

He loved the holidays, especially Christmas, when he always read ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas to his children, and eventually his grandchildren. He had a sweet tooth, cultivated by his wife Janet’s extraordinary baking, and nourished by his daughters and granddaughters, who followed in her footsteps. 

 

He moved to Wilmette, Illinois, shortly before his passing, where he found an apartment overlooking Lake Michigan – the lake he grew up on. 

 

John is survived by his three children, Regan, Lilly, and Wells; their spouses, Jordan, Nik, and Chrissy; his five granddaughters, Maylin, Marlowe, Daphne, Oona, and June; and three of his siblings, Susan Root, Thomas Preston, and Sarah Linthicum.