In the small hours of the morning of April 22, 2026, our brother, uncle, and friend, John A Gibson, Jr. (aka “the crown prince,” Johnny, Uncle John/Johnny and Jake) quietly slipped away to answer God’s call to rejoin Him in his heavenly home, where he was no doubt joyfully greeted by his parents, John A. Gibson. Sr. and Dorothy Croughan Gibson.
Raised in Bloomfield, N.J., he led a Mayberry-like childhood where he and his friends were able to roam freely and fish at Oaks’ Pond to their hearts’ content. And that is where his love of Bloomfield and his love of fishing began. He graduated high school (1948) without much incident, although there is a story of a month’s long banishment to lunch with the custodial staff following the release of some white mice from the confines of the biology lab to the freedom of the cafeteria.
He was the proud graduate of two colleges, earning a BS in Business Administration from Seton Hall (1952), a BS in Mechanical Engineering (1959) followed by an MS in Management Engineering (1969) from Newark College of Engineering (NJIT). The latter degrees were much more in line with his love of tinkering with anything mechanical. After a series of jobs, he went to work for Atlas Tire, rising to the level of Vice President in charge of designing and overseeing the installation of Atlas testing laboratories across the country. He worked there until the company shut its doors c.1994.
If you wanted to find John when he wasn’t working or putting in his time with the Air Force National Guard (7 years) you might have had to catch a prop-plane ride to his favorite vacation spot on the island in Lake Mopang, Maine, where the usual crew would be incommunicado for 2 weeks each fall, as they maintained the cabin and hunted and fished. Or you might have had to find out where the Bloomfield Hunters and Anglers Association was hunting, fishing or sponsoring a skeet- shooting competition. Or, you might have had to take a ride to The Dream Mile fishing camp in the Poconos, his version of heaven on earth. But there you would have had to ask for Jake, as no one knew him as John. And there was aways the chance of finding him sitting home at his work table tying fishing flies or repacking for skeet shoots. Locally, and more recently, on a Sunday morning, you would have found him at the Franklin Revolver and rifle range.
Wherever John went, he made lifelong friends. First in Bloomfield with his fishing buddies and, oddly enough, with the ACRA theater group of Bloomfield, who staged professional-level productions such as Finian’s Rainbow and Anything Goes, among others. (That he did stage-work was not surprising, but the fact that he acted in some of
them sure was!) Atlas Tire may have closed, but the friendships made there continued to the end.
A move from Bloomfield to Franklin, N.J., offered him new opportunities to delve into small-town life again, and he loved it. Breakfast at the Franklin Diner became a daily lesson in local lore. He and his father became dinner staples at Granny’s. Soon it seemed as though he had lived here forever. Always curious, he drove every local road looking for the best possible shortcuts to wherever. It became an obsession. Just ask anyone who’s had the pleasure of driving him to a doctor’s appointment.
For all these varied interests and activities, family was always a priority for John. He never missed a family event, even if he had little to say while he was there. And no one took better care of his mother and dad than he did. Besides his parents, John was predeceased by his brother Edward and brothers-in-law Robert Carter and Stanley Lipinski. He is survived by his brother Thomas and wife Elaine; sisters Patricia Carter, Katherine Lipinski, Mary Donegan and husband Bernie, as well as a host of nieces and nephews who will always remember him as the uncle who ate the salad last, took forever to finish a meal, and was a wealth of information about anything related to the Morris Canal.
We will miss his quiet presence, but we will celebrate the long, full life he led. We thank all those friends who kept in touch through calls, cards, or visits. You brightened his days. So, if you want to honor his memory, reach out: call a friend, send a card, pay a visit. It’s what he did.
Memorial visitation for John will be held on Saturday, May 16, 2026, from 9-11 a.m. at the F. John Ramsey Funeral Home, One Main Street, Franklin, NJ 07416. The Funeral Mass will follow at 11:30 a.m. at the Immaculate Conception RC Church in Franklin.