John Christopher Peace, age 67, of Montgomery Village, Maryland, left this earthly life on Friday morning, 22 August 2014, at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland, after a courageous battle with the auto-immune disease, dermatomyositis, surrounded by his loving family. He was born 20 April 1947, in Mercy Hospital in San Diego, California, the oldest of three sons born to John Cameron Peace and Phyllis Evalena Christenson and raised in the Spring Valley/La Mesa area of San Diego County. John was the grandson of Cameron Albert Peace and Esther McCullough and Selmer Christenson and Arvetta Sandy. Both sets of grandparents lived in the San Diego area and John grew up surrounded by a warm and loving extended family and lots of interaction with cousins during the summers and holidays.
John graduated from Monte Vista High School in Spring Valley in 1965. After high school, he stayed in the area, attending the University of California at San Diego where he received a Bachelor of Arts in Microbiology in 1970, and completed a Masters in Business Administration at National University in 1979. John worked first as the Office Manager and then as the Vice President of Finance/Part Owner in the family business, Coast Electric Company. Coast was started in downtown San Diego by John's Grandfather Peace in 1927, and John worked there with his father and uncle, putting in the company's first mainframe computer system when computer's first became available.
John was a man of many interests. He was a voracious reader and very curious about how and why things worked the way they did. He grew up reading the family's set of encyclopedias just for fun and spent lots of the time enjoying all that San Diego had to offer. He especially loved animals, fish, and birds, and was very involved with the San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park programs. His love of the wild animals led him to go on four African photographic safaris, one of them with his parents so he could share that love.
John married Miriam Jean Low of Boise, Idaho, in the Salt Lake City LDS Temple on 18 August 1978, where they were sealed for time and all eternity, after a cross-country blind date and a very long-distance courtship while she was completing graduate studies at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. John had investigated and become a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints before they met and, once married, they made their home in Spring Valley, building their lives, and bringing their four wonderful sons into their home. He used his considerable woodworking and electrical skills to make their home comfortable. John was a very kind, tender, and patient man. He loved a wide variety of music and enjoyed singing with his wife and sons both at home and as we traveled in the car, often singing the boys to sleep when they were little.
John was active in the Church where he served in a variety of positions, including Elders Quorum President and Ward Mission Leader. Having come into the Church in his late twenties, he was a valiant missionary wherever he went, always ready to ‘go on splits' to help the missionary elders serving in the many wards in which he lived, and provided help for almost every ward service project as well as quietly supporting missionaries and other ward members who needed financial help. A gifted teacher, he had the ability, often with very little notice, to prepare and share wonderfully clear lessons that made it a joy to study the gospel.
In 1984, John's father and uncle decided very suddenly to sell the business to an out of state company, and thus, John and Miriam determined to make a major life change. They moved first to Vernon, Connecticut, and then to St. Paul,
Minnesota, where John attended Hamlin University School of Law, and was a member of the Law Review. He graduated Summa Cum Laude, third in his class, with a Juris Doctorate in June of 1993, receiving his only ‘C' in law school after taking his bankruptcy final the day his father passed away.
Leaving law school behind, John moved with his family to Roanoke, Virginia, where he was admitted to the Virginia State Bar and, in a matter a months, was appointed General Counsel for Shenandoah Life Insurance Company. In 1998, the family began a rather nomadic existence, living briefly in Medford, Massachusetts, and then Sandy, Utah. They then moved to Denver, Colorado, where John completed a Masters in Taxation Law and from there to Montgomery County, Maryland, the Seattle, Washington area, and finally to New England. In October of 2007, John and Miriam, moved to settle once again in Montgomery Village area of Maryland where they bought a home and were living at the time John passed away.
John was preceded in death by his father and mother, and both of his younger brothers, Scott Cameron Peace of Tacoma, Washington, and Michael Peace of Prescott Valley, Arizona. He is survived by his wife, Miriam, of Montgomery Village, MD; his four sons, Isaac Cameron (Katie) Peace and their three daughters, Emma, Marissa, and Sabrina, of McKinney, TX; Garrett Andrew Peace, also of Montgomery Village, MD; Brandon Christopher Peace (Therese), his two daughters, Cayden Xavier and Oakleigh Rebecca, and their son, Cameron Lee Peace, of Ogden, UT; Jordan Bradford Peace (Seirra) of Midvale, UT, one niece and three nephews and several cousins.
A viewing will be held on Friday, September 5, 2014 at 9:30 am at Larkin Mortuary, 260 E. South Temple. A graveside service will then be held at 11:00 am following the viewing as John will be laid to rest in the Salt Lake City Cemetery in Salt Lake City, Utah.
