John Paul Velon

John Paul Velon (79) of Laguna Woods, California died February 21,2026 at Activcare, Laguna Hills, California of prostate cancer.

John Paul Velon was born on December 31, 1946, in Chicago, Illinois. He was the second son of William R Velon (Vlahovich) and Lillian Hausler. In 1956 the family moved to Dolton, Illinois. John graduated from Thornton High School in 1964 where he was on the wrestling team and the cross-country team. He was a member of the National Honor Society and the high honor roll.

John attended DePaul University as a physics major for 2 years and then transferred to Detroit University where he completed his degree in Civil Engineering in 1968. At Detroit he was enrolled in the Army ROTC program and expected to become a lieutenant in the US Army after graduation. However, because of his erratic blood pressure he did not meet the physical requirements. Subsequently he completed a master’s degree in engineering at Northwestern. His pursuit of a PHD in engineering was interrupted when he joined the Peace Corps in early 1970’s.

John served in Nepal for 2 years under the Peace Corps primarily working on pipelines and other water related projects. After his tour he worked for the government of Nepal for another year. He then joined Harza Company, a consulting engineering company in Chicago where he quickly moved up to senior environmental engineer and eventually Vice President. His work required frequent trips to Washington DC and many trips to at least 70 foreign countries, many of which were not on the tourist list. Harza eventually went through several mergers finally evolving as Stantec Corp where he retired only several years ago as Vice President emeritus. John was licensed as a professional engineer in both Illinois and Maryland. He was also fluent in both French and Nepali.

On March 4, 1975, he married Louise Carmella Flamini. The couple lived at several Chicago area locations eventually ending in Evanston, Illinois. Around 2015 John moved to Orange County, California to reunite with Louise.

John was phenomenal at memorizing things just to keep his mind active. He recently memorized all 230 countries of the world and their capital cities. He was working on the 2nd largest city in all those countries. He knew all the US presidents and the books of the Bible.

Countries John visited Armenia, Belgium, Botswana, The Bahamas, Barbados, Canada, Cote d’Ivoire, Czechia, Dominican Republic, Ethiopia, Egypt France, Germany, Greece, Guyana, Haiti ,Hungary, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Ireland, Japan, Jordan ,Jamaica, Kenya, South Korea, Lebanon, Liberia, Lesotho, Mexico, Myanmar, Malaysia, Mozambique, Mali, Moldova, Nepal, Netherlands, Oman, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, Palestine, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Rwanda, South Africa, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Syria, Senegal, Switzerland, Singapore, Slovakia, Turkey, Thailand, Taiwan, United Kingdom, Arab Emirates, Venezuela, Vatican City, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

John’s stellar academic achievements can be traced back to his early years. He was the only student in a 1950’s preschool. Classes were taught by his older brother Bill. There were no snack breaks and no sympathy for age differences. To quote their mother it was a really tough class. He was double promoted in the 3rd grade at Marsh Elementary in Chicago and was French Student of the year in high school.

John was somewhat fanatical about physical conditioning, walking every day, doing 3 sets of 35 pushups and using a rowing machine each day until his last couple months.

During his high school years, he and his brother both played baseball in a high school summer league. Their team won the league title a couple times. Years later John recently admitted that his brother was a much better hitter.

John is survived by his wife Louise, older brother William (Susan), nieces and nephews, Ashley Velon, Brett Velon, Elizabeth Powers, and Adam Fiandaca.