John Maruska Jr. passed away peacefully on May 26th, 2020, at home in Yuma, Arizona, with his wife and son, Mark, at his side. John is so loved and will be missed greatly by her, the family and many friends. Born in Chicago January 12, 1943, he grew up in Des Plaines, Illinois, and received a degree from DeVry Tech.

He is preceded in death by his parents, John and Evelyn Maruska and all aunts and uncles. Survivors include his wife of 56 years, Diana Maruska, and their sons and grandchildren: son Keith Maruska and grandchildren John, Michael and Natalee Maruska of Rice Lake, WI.; son Mark Maruska (Julia) and grandchild Emily of Inver Grove Heights, MN; brother Don Maruska (Liz) and niece Kate Maruska of Morro Bay, CA; sister-in-law Pamela Holmgren (Betty Amie) of Algonquin, Illinois; and numerous cousins.

His hobbies and interests were many and varied, such as working at an animal farm that grew mice for Chicago labs, photography dark room, printing, ham radio, rockets, architecture where he won a prize at a state fair, winning 1 ^st place each for his designs of the Junior and Senior high school homecoming floats.

John was well known as a troubleshooter. He could take any machine or apparatus or company that he had never seen and figure out how it works, fix it, or improve it. He loved the challenge of learning something new. All that made him a perfect candidate for IBM.

While working for IBM in Chicago, and after getting his pilot's license, he decided to build a house on a residential airstrip west of Elgin, Illinois, called Casa de Aero Estates. Never driving a caterpillar before, he taught himself and dug the foundation. From his interest in learning about building and observing many building sites, getting answers from the construction crews, and books, he undertook the project of building his first house completely himself all the while working full time at IBM in Chicago. It was amazing that the bank gave him a loan to do so, but we think it was because the Bank's loan officer knew John's dad. It became a popular question that was asked often of John, "How do you know how to do that, did you read it in a book or did your dad teach you?"

Casa de Aero being a new subdivision, their house was the 3 ^rd house built in 1971. Their two sons were born in 1971 and 1972 adding much joy but decreasing Diana's time spent helping build the house. John liked wiring the lights on the runway, and helping the neighbor farmer fix his tractor almost as much as building and flying. His interests were many and varied. He grew a large garden while Diana learned to can the produce. IBM transferred John to Rockford, Illinois, and that ended his flying years by choice. But IBM taught him so much that he left IBM to start his own business which eventually led to a move to Wales, WI, where he managed Hartmann Controls and even reconfigured and improved one of their hydraulic pumps.

Their church at the time was big into missions, and they often hosted missionaries visiting their church. John answered the call of God to go to Kenya East Africa for a church project that was setting up housing for missionaries yet to come. He loved all the challenges of building in such a remote area with untrained help and little supplies. He was very good at improvising and he learned a lot of patience. I think God loved using John's experience and knowledge of building and business and his love of adventure while living in a remote area near the Ethiopian border. What a fantastic blessing God gave him and Diana too, as she hosted the remote guest house, which was her passion at the time.

Back in the states, he worked in Rockford again and in 1989 he decided to leave big business and strike out on his own again. Since he always loved house construction and fishing, he took the summer cabin he built in Spooner, WI, a town where he spent every summer in the 1950's fishing, and turned the cabin into a full house and started working for Barron Electric part-time as the rest of the time he spent building. Out-of-town friends loved to come visit and pitch in on whatever project he was working on at the time. While there, he built 3 duplexes and a couple other houses while starting and running Best Electric Inc., a company installing electric wiring for new houses and heating and air-conditioning units too.

Diana managed to plan weekend trips away to keep him from working too much.  While camping in the desert near Yuma Proving Grounds in AZ, he bought an old trailer and made it look almost new. That's how one vacation was spent!!  They loved the Yuma area and built a house in which to retire!  Helping others build their little casita in the foothills, led to another start-up business, Yuma Home Design in which he designed houses for mostly individuals but ended up doing it for a couple subdivisions too.

Retiring again, he bought 80 acres in Missouri with another couple and raised goats after building the two houses first, but with help this time as he was retiring. He loved his hobby farm of 8 years named Goat Run Ranch and truly became a wonderful shepherd. He had to try raising quail one year, pigs one year, and rabbits two years, all the while the goats were his favorite. He loved the Lord and His enormous and marvelous creation, thus wanting to see and participate in as much as possible.

He loved sharing his knowledge with anyone seeking it and became a mentor to a number of young men throughout his life and a few older ones too! He was such a wonderful kindhearted man, a helper, mentor, faithful friend, beloved big brother, loving father, and loyal, loving husband. He had a great childhood, and he and Diana had 56 wonderful years together traveling the world and enjoying new friends everywhere. God truly blessed him.

His explorer spirit led him and his wife to their final cruise together around the world. They left the cruise early due to his inability to walk or talk that was later diagnosed as a subdural hematoma that required two surgeries. It appears to have been slowly growing over the last year without realizing it until it was too late.

Diana would love to receive comments of your memories of John via email ( john@jdmaruska.com ), and the next time she sees you in person, a hug!

Please contact Diana for the link to a Memorial slide presentation and celebration of John's life.

In lieu of flowers, please remember John at

Calvary Chapel of Yuma, 3280 S. 4th Ave; Suite B,  Yuma, AZ 85364