By Deborah Larsen
John Charles Rosemergy
John Charles Rosemergy was born in Rochester, Michigan, on April 8, 1921, the son of Charles and Grace Burrows Rosemergy. John attended Rochester High School and graduated in the class of 1938. After high school, John continued his education at the University of Michigan, earning a degree in chemistry in 1942.
After graduating from the University of Michigan, John entered officer training at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and was commissioned an ensign in the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve in December 1942. He served in port security assignments in Washington and Oregon before going to sea aboard a Navy attack transport in the Pacific Theater. He returned to the U.S. in December 1945, but remained an officer in the Coast Guard Reserve for a total of 38 years, retiring at the rank of captain.
After the war, John continued his education at the University of Michigan, earning three graduate degrees, including a Ph.D. in science education. He had a long career teaching science in the Ann Arbor Public Schools and also taught science education at the University of Michigan. John wrote a college textbook on astronomy and was a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 1989, John and his wife Margaret, a fellow Coast Guard officer whom he had married in 1945, retired to Fort Worth, Texas.
John Charles Rosemergy died at age 99 on April 2, 2021, and was laid to rest in Fort Worth, Texas. A cenotaph in Mount Avon Cemetery in his hometown also memorializes him.