Obituary of John Alex New

November 25, 1942 – July 26, 2018

John A. New. Age 75 of Taylor.  

Loving father of Lisa (Gene) Godfrey, John (Loretta) New and Dawn (Lew) Echlin. Dearest brother of Janet Papp, Betty Druyor and the late Danny New. Also survived by 4 grandchildren. 

We would like in lieu of flowers donations to be made through the American Lung Association.

FAMILY TRIBUTE

John Alex New was born November 25, 1942 en-route to Wyandotte hospital to Velma and John New of New Boston.  He was the first born son but the younger sibling to Betty and the older sibling to Janet and Danny New.  He took his role as firstborn son to heart.  Working hard around his parent’s farm and learning how to earn money, in fact he left Huron High School before graduation to head off to work to help support his family.  His first job was at the Huron Sod Farm combining his love of the outdoors and gardening with the desire to save money.  His first big purchase was a 1959 white Ford convertible with turquoise interior.   It was his pride and joy and also the car he was in when he first met Diane Foster at a drive in restaurant in Trenton Michigan.  With his exotic movie star good looks and his flash car, he won Diane over quickly and married soon after.  He went to work at Whitehead and Kale and built car hauler train cars.  It was there he first learned an important trade as an industrial welder.  He used these skills to get a job at the new Ford Motor Company at Woodhaven Stamping in 1965 the same year his first born Elisabeth “Lisa” was born and they moved into Southwest Detroit with Diane’s grandmother.  A few years later with the idea of expanding their family they moved to an old farmhouse on Merriman Road in New Boston where his only son John Jr was born.   There they had a kitchen garden growing everything from green beans to pumpkins and they ran a little pumpkin patch to earn extra funds.  John had lots of hobbies, he enjoyed motorcycles, hunting, and playing softball with his UAW brethren.  He met his best friend Gary at Ford and they soon became fast hunting buddies.  In 1972 they decided to move to Devoe Street in Southgate, the same week that his youngest daughter Dawn was born, completing their family.  The next years were spent establishing family traditions, many trips to see waterfalls, Americana sites, Otsego Lake in his famous orange Ford Truck and many many family picnics, parties, holiday celebrations, snow mobile trips, hunting trips, three and four wheelers.  John was always on the move and always about family.  Whether helping his sisters with a home repair, or working on cars with his brother, or mowing the property at his moms.  Helping any one of his kids with their cars or their home projects.  He was always near by with a specialty tool and unsolicited advice.   John was never happier than when he was with his kids, tinkering around in his tool shop, or in his garden or outdoors generally.  John finished up his career at Ford after 32 years and took advantage of the unions’ offerings of specialty classes, he learned small engine repair and wood working, and used those skills to build each of his grand children a personalized cradle that will be a family heirloom treasured for years to come.  John wasn’t an attention seeker, he was happy to sit in the background and enjoy what was going on around him, however he couldn’t help but attract women.  Although at the end of his life he was single, he shared love with some very good ladies.  Married three times to very different and dynamic women, in the end he really liked things his own way, in its correct place, in the “proper” way of doing things which left him better being single and just enjoying his bachelorhood.  John was raised in a Hungarian household, loved every kind of Hungarian food from chicken paprikas, breaded pork chops, pillicintas, or any dessert kiflis, kolach, or poppy seed cake.  But he really loved his pickled dills, peppercinis or any hot Hungarian pepper he could get his hands on.  He was proud of his heritage but also vey proud to be an American and he identified with the American Eagle as a symbol of American pride as well as being a strong and noble creature.  He wore an eagle chain around his neck and in later years had many eagle ceramics and pictures around his home.  It is this that I think he would like to be remembered for…being strong, noble, trustworthy, hardworking and protective father figure to many people in his life; his siblings, his kids, his friends and neighbors.  He always had the quality of father protector, wise, stoic, not always a man of many words, but a man who through his actions, his acts of service, showed his enormous loving heart.