John Frederick Weiler

John Frederick Weiler, 99, considered his biggest accomplishment the beautiful family he raised in McLean, Virginia. He enjoyed the robust childhood of a Pennsylvania farm boy in Warren County, up near the Canadian border - a place where generations of Johns and Joans were born on Weiler Road and buried in Weiler Cemetery. The vast Weiler farm had a fishing pond, a huge barn for cattle and hay. His great grandfather John C Weiler came in 1832 from Alsace Lorraine, which was part of Germany then, at age 4. He later the farm where his grandson Anthony John Weiler and Mildred Grace Newmaker raised John Frederick and his sister Joan with a large extended family of Weilers, Wenzels, and Newmakers nearby.

John left the farm on Feb 12, 1945 when he enlisted in the Army during WW2. Pvt Weiler went on to attend the University of Oklahoma (Kappa Delta Rho ‘51), and become a lifelong Sooners fan. He worked most of his life as a civil engineer for the National Park Service helped plan some of our country's most magnificent parks. He met Haydee Cecilia Boero of Lima Peru on a European tour, who came into his life with children Alex and Rose. They married on June 29, 1968 and he bought his new family a home in McLean, Virginia where they added another son, John Christian Weiler in 1970. He travelled 6 continents with mom, returning always to that same home where he lived with his kids, later his sister-in-law Sarah and Felicita Herrera who joined the family to care for the children and stayed =until her own death at 100.

The war infused him with a sense of civic duty that is the best of this country - a belief that we are all in this together and we all must do our part to make it better. It was at the center of every life lesson he taught his children from why they shouldn't leave the grocery carts in the parking lot to why they had to stop the car in the middle of the highway to pick up the trash to why it was a disgrace to fail to vote. It echoed in his tales of WW2 and how he was traumatized by Hitler's rise and his fear that history was repeating itself now. 

John had a lifelong love of learning and history. He loved to camp in his large tent trailer with the propane stove where he could make Man-wiches and boil Hamburger Helper and all the foods of the 70s when his kids were young. He showed his family Moose in the Tetons and Buffalo in the forest he helped engineer for the National Park Service at Yellowstone. He drove hours to take them to Toboggan parks, and frozen lakes where they could skate, and Lake Erie to swim. He also took his wife and kids to see their family in Peru and saw the jungles and Andes and beaches of South America. After he retired, he traveled to 6 continents with his wife.

He was also a Tenor who sang, wonderfully, at the Washington National Cathedral and the Kennedy Center, in Operas and plays. He loved Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma, and Gilbert and Sullivans’ HMS Pinafore. He also wrote volumes on the history of McLean, volunteered at the Historical Society and worked on his Bridge game methodically.

He gifted his family the best of American life. He insisted they recycle rather than litter, participate rather than observe, vote instead of complain, watch PBS over commercial TV, sing when the performers asked us to, thank people for their service, clap for everyone, give directions to lost people and yell at the TV set when the newscasters got things wrong. He lived long enough to teach that to 6 grandchildren and one great grandchild, and a lot of Peruvian cousins who called him Papa John.

He left us a year shy of the 100 he was aiming for, with his eyes were fixed on the family he created from scratch, his wife of 58 years and three children, and the expectation that all the wisdom he left behind would live long past him.

(He is survived by his wife Haydee Boero Weiler and his children Alex Arce (Mayra Barroso w/children Jose, Arlene, Elaina and great grandson Mateo), Rose Arce (daughter: Luna Arce Rueda) and John Weiler (children: Marissa and Enzo).