John Kin

John Dennis Kin (March 7, 1958 – June 10, 2023)

An Open House to Celebrate his Extraordinary Life will be held on September 9, 2023 from 4:00 to 8:00 p.m. at the White Shutter Winery & Brewery, 3794 County Highway 56, Nevada, OH 44849. John loved a good party, so please come hungry, thirsty and ready to listen to some good music and share stories! An additional celebration will be held in Southern California sometime in March 2024. 

In lieu of flowers, please consider making a donation to the National Sisterhood United for Journeymen Lineman www.nsujl.org.

Life is lived in the dash that separates these two significant dates. In these 65 years everyone who met John knew that he lived a very full, fun, and fulfilling life. John was born in Kenton, Ohio and was raised as a hard working “Farm Kid” near Kirby. 

He attended Saint Mary’s Catholic School until transferring to Upper Sandusky High School where he was excited to have girls in his classes that weren’t relatives. He was active with the Future Farmers of America and served as their Sentinel and made several lifelong friends while there.  

Music was always very important to John. With his earnings from selling a pig that he raised after catching him in a greased pig contest — he bought a suit for his First Communion and a Drum Kit. He started his musical career in the family barn and eventually played with many bands in several states — some of the band’s names you would recognize. John has an extensive collection of musical instruments and jam sessions often happened in his homes. 

John had very high standards and worked very hard and excelled at everything he pursued. He ran a trap line as a kid, he worked in a salvage yard, he worked on the family farm, he was an over-the-road truck driver, had a painting and wallpaper business with a dear friend, sold safety equipment, designed cold weather gear and then he found the profession he was born to do – He became a Lineman.

Being a high voltage Lineman is not an easy career to take up, especially since he was ten years older than his fellow apprentices. John worked as both a Transmission and Distribution Lineman all over the country for numerous public utilities and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) contractors. He worked with many admirable men who were lifelong friends and mentors.  John worked to restore power to numerous communities across the Nation impacted by extreme weather. He believed that being a lineman was a noble career and an essential public service. He was considered an elite lineman because of his ability to work 500 Kilovolt (kv) hot and it was that skill that took him to Hawaiian Electric to do live-line maintenance off a helicopter skid. His favorite position as a Lineman was working as a Training Crew Foreman to prepare the next generation of Linemen. He enjoyed teaching the crews how to work safely and have fun. After 30 years in the profession, he never had a safety accident and hundreds of men went home to their families each day because of John.

John spent 33 years in Southern California and lived in Huntington Beach since 2003. He loved the weather and the ocean. He and a lineman buddy broke the two-man kayak record between Newport Beach and Catalina Island in 1992. He loved to fish, travel, golf, and cook fabulous meals for family and friends. He was most famous for smoking meat. All he had to do was send out a text that the smoker was full and next thing you knew, so was his home. John’s kindness, generosity, unique perspective on life and fabulous sense of humor brought a lot of friends into John’s life. 

John’s book “The Adventures of Skyline John” will be published soon. The very first chapter he wrote was about Charlotte Leeth, his high school English teacher. He sent it to her for feedback and she made very few edits and encouraged him to keep writing. She was a very special person to him — all his friends know her name because he oft spoke about the impact she had on his life.

John met his soulmate Kathrene in December 2000 and there was no doubt about how much they loved one another. They had a lot of adventures together and she was by his side every step of his cancer journey the last three years. John’s surgeon called him his “Warrior Patient” because he never saw anyone fight harder and overcome so much, but his body couldn’t take any more and he left us far too soon.

John is survived by his wife, Kathrene Lisa (Grange) Kin, of Huntington Beach, California; his son, Jacob Aubrey Kin, of Cleveland Heights, Ohio; and Jacob’s mother, Lisa Luzader Kin, of Cleveland Heights, Ohio. His siblings — Michael Alan Kin (Kathy), of Forest, Ohio; Stephen Robert Kin (Jan Leiter), of Upper Sandusky, Ohio; Susan Ann Heator Graham, of Overland Park, Kansas; Deborah Jean Talbert (Allyn), of Kenton, Ohio; and Jeffery Jerome Kin (Marcos Oliveira), of Sarasota Florida. His Sisters- and Brothers-in-Law — Marcene Carlton (Ray), of Gillette West Virginia; Shyrlene Baum (Randy), of Shelley, Idaho; Veldene Woodcook, of Winnemucca, Nevada; and Vaunene Thygerson (Scott), of Bakersfield, Calfornia. One of the titles that John was most proud of was being the “Cool Uncle”. On the Kin side, John had 64 Nieces & Nephews (to include Great and Great-Great) plus one on the way. On the Grange side an additional 100 Nieces and Nephews (to include Great and Great-Great) plus two on the way. 

He was preceded in death by his parents, Robert Dale & Margaret Ann Kin; Brothers-in-Law Keith Woodcook and Richard Graham; and Sister-in-Law Jolene Lang.