John Pettinger, Jr., age 81, passed away April 11, 2024 at his home in Calhoun, Missouri. A graveside service will be held at 12:30PM on Friday, May 10, 2024 at the Park Hill Cemetery in Syracuse, Nebraska. Memorial contributions can be made to the Clinton Animal Shelter and may be left in care of the funeral home.

John L. was born on November 20, 1942, the son of Dr. John Leon and Mable Madrene (Robenberg) Pettinger.

John lived part of his youth in Japan and in Germany Where his father was stationed after the war. It was as a small boy in Japan that John L. found his love for airplanes while watching them take off and land at the airfield across the road from his home. He would eventually become a pilot and own his own plane. John L. was a veteran of the Vietnam War, serving in our country's Navy. Puzzles and the making of things always intrigued him, and drew John L. to his life's work as a tool and die machinist. Never a man who stopped living, at 81 John L. was planning to construct a sawmill to provide him with the wood needed to add on to his shop and home.

The farm his parents bought, his machines, and his dogs, Petunia and Heyyou, were his life. John L. leaves behind cousins who will miss his catalogue of knowledge, his eccentric sense of humor, and his easy smile. He joins his father at Park Hill Cemetery in Syracuse, Nebraska.

Arrangements have been entrusted to Vansant-Mills Funeral Home in Clinton, Missouri.