John Seemar, electrician, veteran

John C. “Jack” Seemar Sr., an electrician and a longtime Ridgefielder, died Monday, Jan. 24, 2005, at Yale-New Haven Hospital. He was 67 years old and the husband of Grace V. “Ginger” Seemar.

A native of New Canaan, Mr. Seemar was born on Dec. 6, 1937, a son of the late Frank F. and Hilda Weil Seemar. He grew up in New Canaan and served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War. A Ridgefielder since 1969, he had been an electrician, and belonged to Local #501 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

Mr. Seemar had two sons with muscular dystrophy.

In 1973, when James “Jimmy” Seemar was nine years old, his father told a reporter, “We know Jimmy won’t live to adulthood. There’s no cure, no treatment. So there’s no expense Ñ I wish there was. I’d walk around the world.

“I sometimes feel like punching holes in the wall Ñ the frustration, knowing what’s going to happen to him and there’s nothing that can be done.”

Jimmy died in 1979 at the age of 14.

“He heroically cared for his two sons diagnosed with muscular dystrophy, and he always felt that God chooses special parents for special children,” his family said this week.

Mr. Seemar followed current affairs in town and in the nation, and from time to time penned letters to the editors of The Press and other publications. He “always felt free to speak his mind to local and federal officials about current events, and most recently attended two peace marches in New York City and Washington, D.C.,” his family said.

Mr. Seemar enjoyed yard work, cutting firewood, hiking, fishing, and the outdoors in general.

Known for his sense of humor, Mr. Seemar “was a good and kind man who will be greatly missed,” his family added.

Besides his wife, Mr. Seemar is survived by two sons, John C. Seemar Jr. of Woodbury, and Jerry F. Seemar of Ridgefield; a brother, Frank Seemar; and a sister, Eleanor Cheavens.

Services will take place Saturday at 6 p.m. in the Green Funeral Home, 57 Main Street, Danbury.

Friends may call at the funeral home Saturday between 4 and 7.

Burial will take place in the spring in Salisbury Cemetery.

Contributions in his memory may be made to the Heifer Project International, P.O. Box 8058, Little Rock AR 72203.