John Negrepont, 92, of Wilmington Delaware passed on April 19, 2017.
He attended High School in Chelsea New York and when he completed high school, World War II had begun and he was drafted in to the Army Air Corp having been unable to even attend his own graduation ceremony. He was stationed overseas and became an aerial gunner on the B-24 Liberator during the war. He returned home after the war and became a technical representative for Republic Aviation and was sent to Italy and later, Greece to teach their respective Air Forces how to work on the F-84 ThunderJet. He met the love of his life, Macel Hanna, in Germany in 1956 and later married in Switzerland. They were married almost 60 years when she passed in 2015.
After returning to the states with a wife and two children, he graduated as an aeronautical engineer from C.W. Post in Long Island, NY. He worked for Grumman Aviation where he helped design and build the Lunar Excursion Module for NASA which eventually landed on the moon in 1969. Later, he worked with Boeing as a failure analysis engineer. In 1973, he became a teacher at DelCastle Vo-Tech High School in Newport DE and eventually retired in 1987. His son, Alexander Negrepont died in 1984.
He lived most of his life in Wilmington DE. During the 1970s and early 1980s, he built two small light aircraft and was a member of the Experimental Aircraft Association since 1953. He also enjoyed tinkering with old muscle cars.
He is survived by his daughter, Diane Lee of Hockessin Delaware, his son-in-law, Robert Lee, his grandsons Alex Lee, Raymond Lee, Matthew Negrepont and his granddaughter, Adriene Howle of Landenberg, PA.
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