John D. Lawry was born on May 26th, 1938 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the eldest of their three children. John was an extraordinary father, grandfather, professor, and friend to many. He attended North Catholic High School and graduated in 1956. His classmates described him in his senior yearbook as “funny,” “a kid with a lot of brains,” “chief answer giver,” and “a great pal with lots of personality and talent.”
John graduated from St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in 1960 with his Bachelor’s Degree. John received his Masters from Duquesne University in 1965 and his Ph.D. from Fordham University in 1972. John married Nancy D. Fink in 1966 and they had one child together, Lili.
John had a love of teaching and a career spanning forty-three years as a Professor of Psychology and Statistics at Marymount College in Tarrytown, New York. He was the Chairman of the Department of Psychology. He was a visiting Professor for the University of Maryland in Japan from 1978-1979 and served on the Board of Directors for the Westchester Center for Psychology Education.
Notably, John was the author of three books; Guide to the History of Psychology (1991), May You Never Stop Dancing: A Professor’s Letters to His Daughter (1998) and College 101: A First Year Reader (1999).
He received a Distinguished Service Award from the Westchester County Psychological Association and an Award of Appreciation from Marymount College “with utmost gratitude for his years of devoted teaching, guidance, and support” in 1998. During his retirement, he taught Emotional Literacy at Sing Sing Prison for Women and was a volunteer at Cornerstone Hospice in The Villages, FL where he wintered for the past decade, and became his final residence. John truly loved his life and friends in the Villages; his social “tribe,” the Course of Miracles Groups, and his fellow Pickleball enthusiasts.
John had a great enthusiasm for life and always focused on the positive in it. He was a lifelong athlete; playing tennis and pickleball ( known for his double-handed serve), running, and going on daily walks. He also had a lifelong passion for the arts; always attending concerts, reading, writing, listening to classical music, and dancing. John is remembered by his peers as being “a wonderful man,” with “encyclopedic knowledge,” and whose fluorescent yellow Croc shoes he adored “will be big shoes to fill indeed.”
John passed away on November 20, 2022 at the age of eighty-four. He is survived by his two sisters Barbara Morel and Janice Lawry, his daughter, Liliana, and his three grandchildren; Alexandra, Christian, and Nicholas Dimitri. A celebration of his life will occur on December 10, 2022 at the Arnold Palmer Golf Club at 12:00pm. For more information about the service and to RSVP: http://evite.me/WgkU8CwtTV.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that any donations be made “In Memory of John Lawry” to support Faculty Development at Fordham Preparatory High School: https://www.fordhamprep.org/giving/donate-now.
