Obituary
John DeCamp Jr.

John Randall DeCamp, Jr., 70, of Raleigh NC, after an intense battle with Alzheimer’s, passed away Monday, November 11, 2024 surrounded by his family. He was born July 15, 1954 in Lafayette, Indiana to the late Anne and John DeCamp, Sr.

He is survived by his loving wife of 47 years Tina, his sons John (Trey) Randall DeCamp, III (wife Ashley), and Michael Christopher DeCamp (wife Erin), three grandchildren Dylan, Lucy, and Leo, his brother Arthur DeCamp (wife Sharon), and a little dog named Dice.

After graduating from Harrison High School in Tippecanoe County, Indiana in 1972, John continued his education at Purdue University where he graduated with a B.S. in Industrial Engineering in 1977. It’s here he met the love of his life, Tina, in his senior year through a very early version of computer dating. What was simply a fun promotion to help raise money for a fraternity turned into the origin of his happily ever after. After only six months of dating, they were married on June 25th, 1977.

John worked as a manufacturing engineer for Motorola from 1983-2000. When some of his co-workers decided to branch out and start their own company, he took a chance and joined them at their new business, US Monolithics. It was eventually bought by Viasat, and he finished his career there in 2019. He very much loved his co-workers and they loved him in return.

In the fall of 1983, John and Tina moved to Mesa, Arizona where they lived for 36 years and built their family. In 1984, they welcomed their first child, Trey, which began the start of many children’s parties, including birthdays, Halloween, Christmas, pool days, etc., entertaining the neighbor kids to no end. In addition to welcoming their second child in ‘87, Michael, he could be found coaching his sons’ sports teams, encouraging musical pursuits, and helping build sets, costumes, and whatever else needed doing for their theater plays. Despite being a dedicated hard worker, he was always present and engaged with his family.

He loved to do yard work, hike, run, and play basketball with his kids and co-workers. He loved to fix things, and could repair just about anything. As a result, he loved helping anyone and everyone fix things such as cars or household items. He was never too busy to lend a helping hand. He enjoyed annual camping trips with several families where he’d unplug from society, hike, kayak, chase Elk, play horseshoes, roast marshmallows, or just relax by the lake. He was a proud Corvette owner and a member of the Corvette club, but his slightly more modest Mazda Miata ‘00 was his favorite vehicle. He drove it every day to work for nearly 20 years. He loved driving with the top down. His work was close to home, and he would often drive home at lunchtime to share a sandwich with his wife. He was an avid blood donor. He taught his kids how to shoot and practice gun safety. In his kids’ teen years, he owned a boat and would take the family out weekly year round for waterskiing and wakeboarding. Even in the winter months, you could still find him on a pair of skis wearing his wetsuit on a glassy morning at Saguaro Lake.

He went on several trips around the world, many with the family, some with his wife Tina, and a few work trips by himself. His and Tina’s favorites were in Hawaii where they loved to snorkel and observe marine life. Of their favorite family trips, twice they enjoyed renting a houseboat on Lake Powell with extended family. John and his cousin Joe, the co-captain of the trips, would muse about the rental price of the houseboat and would joke with their kids saying, “You better enjoy it, cuz it’s a dollar a minute!” Routinely through the trip, one of them would smirk and say, “Dollar a minute!” They towed John’s ski boat behind the houseboat, and at one point in the excursion, the ski boat got separated from the houseboat, and in hilarious fashion they had to figure out how to retrieve it.

Among his most treasured accomplishments, John was most passionate about helping his son Michael build his acting career and his son Trey a music career. He prided himself on being the band manager and music producer for not one but two of his sons’ rock bands, Synoptic and Idle Red, the latter of which his son Michael would join as the drummer. He worked tirelessly to help his sons pursue their dreams!

After retiring in 2019, He and Tina moved to Raleigh, North Carolina to be near their three adorable grandchildren. They purchased a house down the street in a beautiful neighborhood called Bedford. Their son Michael describes it as being like a neighborhood from a classic Steven Spielberg movie. He would not be far off as Bedford is actually based on the Christmas classic “It’s A Wonderful Life.”

If you asked anyone that knew John, they would describe him as kind, honest, ethical, fair, unbiased, encouraging, faithful, exceedingly helpful, intelligent, caring, selfless, and so much more. He was very much a salt of the Earth type person.

Perhaps most importantly, he was very proud of the fact that he only ever loved one woman, his dearest wife Tina.

Unfortunately, Alzheimer’s gave him a difficult and unfair ending, but he would say he still lived a full life worth living and accomplished many, if not all, the things he wanted to do. His limitless kindness lives on through his family.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be given to a charity of your choice or to the Alzheimer's Association.

A Celebration of Life is planned for sometime Spring 2025.