John William Schweitzer, 87, passed away on August 17, 2024, after a brief battle with pancreatic cancer. In the last years of his life he lived in Eden Prairie, Minn., but prior to that called an impressive number of places across the Midwest home including  Decorah, Davenport, Anamosa, Monticello and Cedar Rapids, lowa; Upper Sandusky, Ohio, Milwaukee, Middleton and Cumberland, Wis., St. Paul, Minneapolis, International Falls and Woodbury, Minn.; Bismarck, North Dakota, Kansas City, Mo., Olathe, Kansas and Glen Ellyn, Ill.

Born in Madison, Wis. on Aug. 4, 1937, to George Edwin Schweitzer and Maisie (Ireland) Schweitzer, he graduated from Murray High School in St. Paul, Minn., in 1955 and went on to study at the University of Minnesota, majoring in journalism and minoring in physics, chemistry and mathematics, receiving his bachelor of arts degree in 1961.

A veteran of the U.S. Army Reserve, he served active duty from 1961 to 1963, assigned as an instructor to the U.S. Army Intelligence School at Ft. Holabird where he was promoted to First Lieutenant and awarded an Army Commendation Medal.

An old-school newspaperman through and through, he began his journalism career at the St. Paul Dispatch and Pioneer Press, where he worked from 1949 to 1961 and again from 1963 to 1967 first as a delivery boy then copy boy and finally as a reporter.
He would go on to serve as managing editor of the International Falls Daily Journal (from 1969 to 1974), a reporter, editor, correspondent and broadcast sales executive for the Associated Press (from 1974 to 1996), and an account executive first for KCRG Radio (1996 to 1998) and then KMRY radio (from 1999 to 2000) where he also worked as a copywriter. In addition he contributed freelance articles and photographs to the Cedar Rapids Gazette over the years.

During his career as a newsman, he did not join civic groups and community organizations reasoning that it would be a conflict in the event he might have to report on them. After his retirement from the news business, though, he enthusiastically joined several and most enjoyed playing the saxophone in the New Horizons Band and the Dixie Notes Plus swing band. The latter played almost every month at Cedar Rapids Milestones adult-care facility where Schweitzer would introduce the songs.

Other organizations he contributed his time and energy to included the Metco Credit Union of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, (where he was a member, board member and officer), the Koochiching County (Minn.) Humane Society (a co-founder), the Downtown Kiwanis Club of Cedar Rapids (member and former board member), and the Community Concert Association of Cedar Rapids, Iowa (a former board member).

He was a firm believer in "localism" – friends and neighbors running their own institutions such as schools, credit unions and care facilities. He enjoyed fishing and going on fishing trips with his family. As a result of his long journalism career, he knew his way around a good tale and was known as an inveterate teller of stories and sharer of humorous anecdotes. No phone conversation, Zoom or fishing excursion was ever complete without one or more of his tall tales, shaggy dog stories or groaner jokes.

He is survived by a younger sister, Nancy Tschorn, of Sandgate, Vt., as well as  nieces, nephews and cousins in Vermont, California, Washington, Minnesota and lowa. He married  Hazel Just in 1960, they divorced in 1992. His longtime companion, Martha (Marti) Zobl, predeceased him in March 2023.

Graveside Services will be held 1:30 Saturday afternoon, August 31, 2024 at Oakwood Cemetery, Monticello, Iowa with Military Honors.   Goettsch Funeral Home, Monticello has taken John and his family into their care.