Mr. John W Hole Jr.

John Wesley Hole, Jr ("Jack") passed away on February 6, 2024 in Whittier, CA at the age of 97. He was born in Hollywood, California to Velma (Edwards) and J. Wesley Hole, and was raised in La Canada, California. He attended La Canada Elementary School, and after graduating attended Eliot Junior High School in Altadena and Pasadena Junior College. After serving in the army for nearly two years during the end of World War II, a year of which was spent in the Philippine Islands, he enrolled at John Muir College in Pasadena and later received a BA degree in zoology and a secondary school teaching credential from U.C.L.A. He was employed by the Whittier Union High School District and taught science classes at Whittier High School and later at California High School and acted as the science department chairman at CALHI for nine years. In 1966 he moved to the newly established Rio Hondo College in Whittier, specializing in teaching general biology and human anatomy and physiology to nursing students. He retired from teaching in 1984.

In 1953, Jack met Shirley Mae French at the First United Methodist Church in Glendale, CA. They were married in 1955 and moved to Whittier, purchasing their first home in 1958, the year their first child, Laurence Wesley, was born. Laurence was followed by the birth of Karen Lynn in 1960 and Michael David in 1965. Shirley and Jack enjoyed fifty-five years of happy married life and were blessed with the love and support of their immediate and extended family members. They became members of the East Whittier United Methodist Church in 1959.

While Shirley remained at home serving as a homemaker and tending to the everyday tasks of raising three youngsters, Jack taught science classes and during the summer months worked with a colleague photographing, and preparing a series of science filmstrips that were used nationally in elementary schools. Jack later became involved with authoring and co-authoring high school and college biology textbooks, and authoring a very successful text book titled "Hole's Anatomy and Physiology" which was adopted by 85 Community Colleges and Universities.

Jack served as president of the California Science Teachers Association, Southern Section, and was a member of several professional organizations, including the National Association of Biology Teachers, the National Science Teachers Association, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He also was a member of the California State Department of Education's Advisory Committee on Science Instruction in High Schools. During several summers he received fellowships from the National Science Foundation to attend institutes and college classes, and in the early 1960s served as leader of the Los Angeles County Center of the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study, sponsored by the National Science Foundation. In 2001 he was honored by being named a Fellow of Rio Hondo College.

In 1991 Jack's beloved wife, Shirley, suffered two heart attacks, and although she continued to enjoy a relatively normal life with the aid of medications and surgical interventions during the following nineteen years, she died of cardiac arrest in 2010. In addition to his three grown children Laurence (Andrea), Karen, and Michael (Indigo), Jack leaves behind two grand daughters, Lilia Mae (Brian) Miller and Natalie Lynn (Ben) Hidy, one adorable great grandson, Wesley Harrison Hidy, as well as a beloved sister, Marilyn (William) Peer of Eagle Rock, two nephews, William Peer II (Gerry) and Charles (Sue) Peer and several cousins.

Jack will be greatly missed by his family.