John Acord Obituary

Born March 24, 1916, Bisbee, Arizona, passed away peacefully on June 22, 2009, age 93 at his home in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Funeral services will be held at 11:00 AM, Monday, June 29, 2009 at Bear Valley Christian Church, 6800 West Hampden Ave., Lakewood, Colorado, followed by internment at Logan National Cemetery, Denver, Colorado. He is survived by four children, John, Kenneth, Sherron, and Susan, four grand-children, John, Kevin, Kimberly, and Megan, and four great grand-children, McKinsey, McGwire, Grayson, and Sydney Rose. He is preceded in death by his son Floyd Acord who died of injuries suffered in the Gulf War. John loved the sea and its great ships. He served his country in active duty in the U.S. Merchant Marine, U.S. Coast Guard, and held the rank of Commander, U.S. Coast Guard. His service extended from the World War II, the Korean War, Vietnam, and the Gulf War. When not designing new ships for the merchant marine, Coast Guard and U.S. Navy, he served as an active Chief Engineer. John E. Acord graduated from Torrance High School, Torrance, California, Class of 1933, graduated from Loyola University of Los Angeles with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. He was a Licensed Professional Engineer. His extensive professional engineering and military activities included the salvage of U.S. naval ships damaged at Pearl Harbor, numerous service on merchant and coast guard ships and survived many North Atlantic convoys, including the infamous Murmansk convoys where losses to German wolf packs sometimes exceeded 50% of the convoyed ships. John's ship was hit by a torpedo that failed to explode but lodged in the engine room. He saved his ship by defusing the warhead. He was complimented by one of his long serving sailors who remembered he was proud to serve under a commander that never lost a ship or a man in 40 years of often hazardous duty, including four wars. Long retired from Coast Guard and Merchant Marine service, John was recalled by the U.S. Coast Guard at the commencement of the Gulf War to oversee the commissioning and of a fleet of high speed, heavy equipment transport ships he had helped design in the 1960's and later mothballed until the outbreak of hostilities in the Gulf. John was 74 years old in 1990 and proudly served his country on active duty for the ensuing two years. While in civilian employment he built several power plants for Bechtel Corporation, designed and commanded on its maiden voyage from the Atlantic to the Pacific the U.S. merchant tanker Manhattan built to traverse the Norwest Passage, designed oil platforms for Brown and Root, and supervised the construction of numerous merchant and naval ships while employed by Todd Shipyards. A long-time resident of Houston, Texas, John moved to Colorado Springs in 2004 to be near his daughter and grand-daughter and great grand children. Many years he was a fixture at the YMCA where he worked out vigorously at least 3 times a week. In his declining years he was cared for by his loving daughters Susan hart and Sherron Dorris. John was a life long member of the Marine Engineers Beneficial Association.