John W. Nazemetz, age 71, passed away Thursday, October 5, 2023 after a 10-year battle with leiomyosarcoma, an orphan cancer. He fought it with an optimistic outlook and never complained. He participated on five experimental trials at M.D. Anderson as well as eleven chemo protocols and treatments.

A memorial service will be 2:00 p.m. Tuesday, October 24, 2023 at the First United Methodist Church in Stillwater. Strode Funeral Home and Cremations is in charge of the arrangements.

John was born to John and Mary Nazemetz, the youngest of three children and was raised on the family dairy farm in Hillsborgh, New Jersey. It was here that he learned to appreciate the value and satisfaction of hard work and a job well done. While growing up, he learned to hunt and fish, canoe the Raritan River, and played basketball, softball, football in Saturday games with friends.

He did well in school, serving as president of his 400-hundred-member class and was year book editor at Somerville High. Upon graduation, he enrolled in Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, majoring in Industrial Engineering and lettered in cheerleading. He was a member of Pi Kappa Alpha and developed strong friendships that persisted throughout his life, recently he enjoyed weekly zoom meetings and took cruises with "the guys".

He was inducted into Alpha Pi Mu, the national industrial engineer honor society. He graduated with a bachelor of science, with honors in 1973 and earned a PhD in Industrial Engineering in 1978. During his graduate studies, he worked as a teaching assistant and was promoted to instructor, becoming one of the youngest members of the Lehigh faculty.

After graduation, he traveled west and joined the Oklahoma State School of Industrial Engineering and Management. While he focused on teaching courses in manufacturing systems, he taught a variety of courses in production control, project management, automation, optimization, and taught the first robotics course at OSU. He was heavily involved in distance education through the National Technological University and OSU Engineering Extension.

He particularly enjoyed teaching the Capstone senior design course in which he placed student teams at many industrial sites to resolve real world problems. He held students to accurate data collection and analysis and the generation of well written, well documented, grammatically correct reports and oral presentations. He thoroughly reviewed every draft generated by the team, often filling the margins with comments and suggested improvements. He oversaw approximately 250 industrial based senior design teams and 100 industrial based masters' degrees. He served as chair of the OSU faculty council as well as the OSU engineering faculty council.

He was also active in the Institute of Industrial Engineers and served a variety of positions in the Manufacturing Systems division, and served several years as its director. He taught robotics and manufacturing systems at the institutes semi-annual conferences and organized the first research conference for the institute. He mentored the student chapter and they were named the top student chapter for 6 of the 7 years he mentored them. He was named the 1990 outstanding young industrial engineer (international award).

Over his 39-year career, he successfully executed 6.9 million dollars in research funding and oversaw the distribution of another 3.5 million in funding for other faculty at 3 air force bases. He edited the Journal of Industrial Engineering for Pergamon Press and authored/ co-authored 4 books and multiple publications.

He was active in community organizations. He served on the board of directors for the Sheltered Workshop, and Judith Karmen Hospice. He was particularly proud of his work as a builder at Stillwater's Habitat for Humanity. He enjoyed his morning coffee groups and their uncanny ability to solve the world's problems.

John is predeceased by his parents, John and Mary Nazemetz of Hillsborough N.J. and his brother Michael of S. Berwick Maine.

He is survived by His wife of 32 years, Jeanette; sister Pat and husband Herb Rydberg; nephew Darren Rydberg and wife Liz, and children Mark, Eric, and Greg; niece Kaitlin Basile and husband Tim and children Kyle and Jamie; Sister-in-law Ann Lee Hussey, and numerous cousins.

The family would like to thank the staff at SMC Cancer Center, Home Health, Karmen Legacy Hospice, the SMPC, and the staff at M.D. Anderson, in particular, Drs Karp, and Zarzoor for their kind efforts on his behalf.

Those wishing to honor John's memory may do so by contributing to the Habitat for Humanity, 505 E. 18th Ave., Stillwater, OK 74074.