His father was John Andrews of Lubec, an English major who became a registered Maine pharmacist. His mother was the former Madge Calder of Campobello Island, New Brunswick.
During his boyhood, he hunted and fished in Farmingdale, Maine.
He attended Gardiner High School where he played trombone at every football game. He played in the X-Men of Note, a Glenn Miller-style college dance band at St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia, where he was invited back after 50 and 51 years later for two class reunion encore performances.
After graduating University of Maine with a degree in electronic engineering where he studied vacuum tubes, he left Maine because there were no jobs. One of his first design projects was as a team member of analog computer-based graphics display navigation system used to pilot nuclear submarines and military helicopters. He also designed newspaper automation systems, medical heart monitors, over-the-horizon radar systems, nuclear weapon instrumentation systems and several computer chips.
During his 38-year career as an electronics design engineer, he published more than 100 technical papers presented in both North America and Europe. He was a guest speaker at the University of Maine, Stanford University, and the old Bell Labs. He was granted nine patents for computer chip designs including one for the world’s first 64-bit semiconductor memory chip.
He served as an officer in the Institute of Electronics and Electrical Engineers (IEEE). This included founding the Maine Chapter of the IEEE Computer Society, serving on several standards committees, and serving as Chairman of the Maine Section of the IEEE.
Within a week of graduating from Orono, Class of ’60, he married the former Marietta Garey, from the Orono Class of ‘59, who was his best friend from 1958 until separated by death in 2012. She often traveled to conferences with him.
While living in Framingham, Massachusetts, he was an elected town meeting member, a Scout leader, and led outings for the Appalachian Mountain Club. During his stay in Massachusetts, he changed jobs every three years – to keep from getting bored, obsolete, or fired. When he returned to Maine, he worked at Fairchild Semiconductor until he retired.
His life-long love of the outdoors led him to found Saco Valley Land Trust, Saco Bay Trails, and the Eastern Trail Alliance. John has shocked and delighted when Bob Hamblen announced that the Eastern Trail Rte. 1 bridge would be named the John R. Andrews Bridge.
He became a Registered Maine Guide, served as Chairman of the Maine Chapter of the Appalachian Mountain Club, and led white water canoe and cross country ski trips. Year-round he led full moon outings including several full moon paddles to coastal islands and many winter full moons leading ski trips up Cadillac Mountain’s Auto Road. His biggest outings thrill was a winter mule ride to the bottom of the Grand Canyon on an icy trail.
He enjoyed decades of power boating the Maine coast from his wife’s family camp in East Boothbay in family boats called JOMAR.
When 77, he biked from Washington, D.C. to Pittsburgh sleeping in a tent. Some nights it rained, one night mixed with snow.
His proudest accomplishment was helping Marietta raise two sons John and Michael, who, in later years, he considered, after Marietta, his two best friends. He crafted several unpublished bedtime stories about the Three Lion Boys in the Maine Woods.
He was pre-deceased by his best friend and wife of 51 years, Marietta, the former Marietta Garey. He is survived by his sons John, of San Leandro, California, and Michael and his wife Livia, of Croton-on-Hudson, New York; two amazing granddaughters, Amanda Fraguas and Iulia Andrews; and brothers Jay of Sarasota, Florida and Rockland, Maine; and James of Sarasota, Florida and South Portland, Maine.
Visitation will be held at the Hobbs Funeral Home, 5 to 7 p.m.., Sunday, Feb. 26, 671 U.S. Route 1, Scarborough Maine.
In lieu of flowers, he requests that donations be made to: Boothbay Region Land Trust; Eastern Trail Alliance; or Maine Coast Heritage Trust.
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