"Dear David, Sending love and prayers to your family. John was a great neighbor for 28 years. I loved how he came over to the fence and greeted my two dogs even when I was inside. He was so active in the community. I know he enjoyed a long bike ride nearly every day. We were greatly saddened when he decided to move into a cottage at Good Samaritan Home, and now saddened this wonderful brother of yours has passed. He will be missed."
In loving memory of
John Bunting
August 27, 2016
John Russell Bunting, age 75, of Quincy, died Saturday, August 27, 2016, at 3:00 am in his home.
John was born March 14, 1941 in Quincy, Illinois, the son of Robert Russell and Lydia "Dottie" Dora Fredericka Rabe Bunting.
A lifelong outdoor person, John was an active Cub and Boy Scout, interested in and working at camps Eastman near Nauvoo and Saukenauk near Lima.
Following his 1958 graduation from Quincy High School, and obtaining his 1962 electronics engineer degree from the University of Illinois, John joined a small team of advanced engineers working for McDonnell Douglas in St. Louis in the mid-to-late 1960's designing and testing radio and radar antennas for the F-4 Phantom fighter-attack bombers used heavily in Viet Nam.
His same team then in the late 1960's took on the design and testing of the antennas for the Apollo spacecraft. At times working in conjunction with the astronauts, antennas he designed and tested were used on the Apollo missions that went to the moon.
In the mid-1970's, moving to join a similar team of electronics engineers employed by Zenith Television in Springfield, Missouri, he designed and installed an experimental test jig using the very first widely-available computer CPU, Intel's 8080, to automatically test Zenith's television chassis before cabinet assembly, successfully reducing their return-for-defect ratio from a company-ruining one-in-fifty to one-in-one-thousand.
His last decade of electronics work was as the quality control engineer for Micro Energy in Quincy, where he became so experienced at pinpointing defects in their extreme-reliability medical power supplies, that he could pinpoint many problems by finding which components were too hot or too cool by simply touching them with his fingers.
After retirement, John spent years building many Habitat For Humanity houses in Quincy.
John is survived by his brother, David Bunting of Packwood, WA.
He was preceded in death by his parents.
Services: 10:00 am Thursday, September 1, 2016 at Vermont Street United Methodist Church, with Rev. Sherri Renner officiating.
Burial: Woodland Cemetery, Quincy, Illinois
Memorials: Habitat For Humanity, Vermont Street United Methodist Church or Good Samaritan Home
www.hansenspear.com
Hansen-Spear Funeral Directors are in charge of the arrangements.
Tributes
"Dear David and Family, Sending our thoughts and prayers to you. John and your mom were such wonderful neighbors when I lived next door. John always had a wave, smile and a "hello" for our giant dogs greeting him over the fence! It was a pleasure being his neighbor, and getting acquainted with you and your family. Warmly, Anne Emerick McNay & Jerry McNay"