John Michael Yetsko

John Michael Yetsko of Bainbridge Island died Feb. 23 due to complications from Parkinson’s disease.

After a long and notable career in the U.S. military, and 20 more years of university and college administration, he and his wife of 60 years, Bonnie Hopper Yetsko, retired to Bainbridge Island in 2001, to be close to their family.

He was born Jan. 8, 1923, in Revloc, Penn., to Charles Casper and Esther Ellen (Carns) Yetsko. After attending St. Peter’s High School in McKeesport, Pa., he graduated from Holy Hills Carmelite Seminary, in Hubertus, Wis., a monastery of Friars of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

He began his military career serving sea duty for the U.S. Marines in England and Scotland. He served as a personal aide to President Franklin Roosevelt, while also attached to the USS Wichita commander, acting as consultant to the British Navy.

In 1942, he became a member of the elite U.S. Marine Corps Raiders, Carlson’s Raiders, 2nd, a select and secret group developed by President Roosevelt for purposes similar to the British Commandos and the Chinese guerilla resistance. James Roosevelt became the executive officer of the commando intelligence unit, as well as a lifelong friend.

He earned numerous commendations, citations and medals of valor in the Pacific theater, including a Silver Star, five Bronze Stars, a Presidential Unit Citation with ribbon bar, and Navy Unit Commendation with ribbon bar for the Treasury-Bismarck Archipelago operation; Bougainville, Northern Solomons, Marianas, and Okinawa operations of the Asiatic Pacific campaign; as well as the European-African Campaign and Asiatic-Pacific Campaign.

The commanding general of the fleet Marine Forces, Pacific, commended him as having “displayed brilliant tactical and exacting technical skill, and his outstanding qualities of leadership and constant devotion to duty were an inspiration to his men.”

On Sept. 2, 1945, he was one of eight U.S. Marines invited to attend with his command, the signing of the Japanese Surrender on board the USS Missouri in September 1945.

New Year’s Eve, 1942, while temporarily stationed in California, he met the love of his life, Yvonne “Bonnie” Ellen Hopper of Pasadena, Calif. On New Year’s Day, their first date, they attended the Rose Bowl Game together.

For the next three years, while he served overseas during World War II, they shared their romance through hundreds of exchanged letters. They married upon his return in 1945.

For the next 15 years, with their two children, Debbie and Greg, and their dog, Mike, they traveled and lived abroad, sharing adventures in new cultures with new languages.

After his retirement from the Marines, he enlisted in the U.S. Army as a career infantry intelligence specialist where he taught Arctic wilderness survival and mountaineering training.

He completed worldwide service that included Asia, Europe and the United States as an intelligence and operations specialist, including collections, interpretation and analysis of intelligence information and training and supervision of personnel.

He worked once again with James Roosevelt through the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., until retirement.

He attended UCLA and the University of Alaska, and began a second career in university administration as a department director. For the next 20 years, he served on the staff of California Institute of Technology, in Pasadena, Calif., and the University of California, in Long Beach; University of San Francisco; the University of Alaska; American University, in Washington, D.C.; and spent a number of years at Claremont McKenna University, in Claremont, Calif.

He shared his love of golf with his grandsons and nephews. With an eight handicap, he often participated in amateur tournaments with friends at Brentwood and Via Verde country club in California.

Growing up in the woodlands of Pennsylvania, he had a lifelong love of nature and the outdoors, always professing a sense of wonder and awe. He was an avid mountain skier, as well as a fisherman, equally at home in the mountains and on the sea.

He was preceded in death by his parents; by his brother Charles R. Yetsko, a medical corpsman killed in 1952 in the Korean War and sister, Virginia Yetsko.

He is survived by his wife, Bonnie E. Yetsko, Bainbridge Island; his daughter Debbie Y. (Richard P.) Vancil, Bainbridge Island; grandson Ryan P. (Debbi Lester) Vancil; great-grandchildren Corbin Lester Vancil and Maddy Reeves Vancil; grandson Joshua P. (Carolina Y.) Vancil; son Gregory J. Yetsko, grandson Daniel J. Yetsko and granddaughter Emily S. Yetsko, all of Ithaca, N.Y.; nephew Dr. Gary Hopper, Monrovia, Calif.; niece Marcia A. Hopper Mantana, Idyllwild, Calif.; nephew Thomas Hopper, Sand Point, Idaho; nephew Edward Hopper, Hemet, Calif.; sister Leah Turnsec, McKeesport, Pa; and many nieces, nephews and cousins.

A funeral mass will be held at 11 a.m. March 9, followed by military honor guard and flag presentation ceremony at St. Cecilia Catholic Church. A reception follows at the Vancil family home on Bainbridge Island.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Booth Gardner Parkinson’s Care Center, Evergreen Healthcare Foundation, (425) 899-1900.

Arrangements are by Kass & Cook Family Funeral Home.