John Stimson Wyeth Sr. died on August 8 after a long battle with myelodysplasia and leukemia, under hospice care at his home in Needham, the house his parents built, where he grew up and raised his own children. His wife Betty May ( Gardner) and their children, Amy and John Jr., were by his side. Wyeth loved life and he had a will to live. A World War II combat veteran and survivor of other illness prior to the one that took him, he overcame much hardship. He had rare gifts of enjoying life’s simple pleasures: his family remembers his special ability to love and show appreciation for the world around him, its people, sights, sounds, tastes. Wyeth attended Needham public schools and graduated from Needham High School in 1941. He began studies at Harvard University in September 1942. The following June, he was drafted and sent overseas to fight with the U.S. Army in its Central European campaign. Serving his country as an ambulance driver, he earned the good conduct medal, designation as a pharmacy technician and marksman, and eventually an honorable discharge in February 1946. But he never spoke of his military service unless pressed. He returned to Harvard on his discharge, spending six months studying abroad in Paris, France and graduating in June 1949. The following year, he earned his Masters Degree in French from Middlebury College. For the next few years, Wyeth adjusted from his time in the military and tutored students from his hometown in foreign languages. He then worked five years at Harvard’s Widener Library. In the 1960’s he worked as a teaching assistant at University of Connecticut (where he studied toward a PhD in Romance Languages), and French instructor at Emerson College and Salem State. He spent the final 27 years of his career as a librarian in the Technical Service Department at Framingham State College, retiring in 1999. He and his family enjoyed vacations in New England summer spots including Martha’s Vineyard, MA; Grafton, VT; Jaffrey, NH; and Port Clyde, ME for many years. He and his wife traveled to more exotic destinations including Moscow, Rome, Amsterdam, London, and Paris, where they visited their daughter, who followed in his footsteps by studying there during her own college years. He spent 30 years singing as a baritone in Needham’s Highland Glee Club, a men’s chorus, and nearly two decades in the choir of the Needham Congregational Church. The biographical details tell but a small part of who John Wyeth Sr. was. Three days before his death, he sang a French lullaby aloud, reminding his daughter of lyrics of the song her sang to her at bedtime three decades ago. On the last day of July, he breathed into a bouquet of lavender blossoms and pronounced them “ the sweetest perfume of all”. “ My father was so appreciative. The smallest thing you would do, like make a phone call to say hello, would inspire him to tell you what joy you were bringing him”, his daughter recalled. “ It’s something to be able to make people feel better about themselves with a simple expression like that. But he knew that’s people need. That was his specialty.” My father’s appreciation of the things most of us take for granted was pure and genuine”, added his son. “There was never the slightest artifice, any sense that he was trying to flatter you for any reason.” Wyeth is survived by his loving wife of 39 years, Betty May, and their children Amy Gardner Wyeth of Somerville, and John Stimson Wyeth Jr., formerly of Brooklyn NY, currently living in Kosovo, the former Yugoslavia. A memorial service will be held Saturday, August 16 at 2:00 PM at the Needham Congregational Church, 1154 Great Plain Avenue, Needham. Arrangements by the Eaton Funeral Home 1351 Highland Avenue Needham.