He was born in Quincy, Mass. in 1936, the son of David G. and Ethel L. (Wills) Way, and attended Quincy and Acton high schools. He obtained his bachelor’s degree from Renssalear Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y. in 1958. He met his future wife and lifetime companion Carol J. Alger while in college and they were married in Albany, N.Y. in 1957. Children Richard and Nancy were born in successive years thereafter. 

After three years in the Navy, John returned to Renssalear Polytechnic Institute and obtained a Ph.D. in aeronautical engineering in 1966. Following a four-year postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California at San Diego, he became a professor at Illinois Institute of Technology in the mechanical and aerospace engineering department in 1970 and worked there until his retirement in 2001. John participated in a major research program in which he helped to build a wind tunnel in order to study lift and drag on simulated airplane wings to improve air safety. His true passion, though, was teaching aerospace and mechanical engineering to the Institute’s college students. 

John and Carol retired to Westport Island in 2001. His ten-and-a-half-year retirement was too short, but was very well spent. He was never happier than when he was volunteering in the Curatorial Department and Library Archives of the Maine Maritime Museum in Bath. Studying, sorting and filing ship’s plans were pure joy, as was serving on the volunteer council and getting to know the volunteers and staff at the museum. Socializing with friends and family at his favorite haunts was another favorite pastime. True to his interests in aeronautical engineering, John was delighted when the Texas Flying Legends Warbirds began flying summers out of Wiscasset, only a few miles from his Westport home. 

While recovering from a successful cardiac procedure, and feeling better than he had in some time, John received the devastating news that he had stage 4 pancreatic cancer. John’s final months were spent at home in the care of family, friends and the wonderful nurses and aides from the CHANS hospice organization. He died peacefully surrounded by his immediate family and his primary CHANS nurse. 

He is survived by his wife of 55 years, Carol; son, Rick and his wife Vicki (Eshenbaugh) and grandchildren Bryan and Jessie Way, all of Maryland; daughter, Nancy Way Kleckner and her husband Bob Kleckner of Lewiston; sister, Jane Yates and her husband Bob Yates of Florida; and niece, Laura Bernard and her husband Glenn Bernard of New Boston, N.H. He was predeceased by nephew Scott Yates.

A memorial service will be held at the Maine Maritime Museum in Bath on Sunday, Sept. 9 from 1 to 4 p.m. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations may be made to the Maine Maritime Museum, 243 Washington St., Bath, ME 04530, or to CHANS Home Health Care, 60 Baribeau Drive, Brunswick, ME, 04011.