John Robert Hertel, "Crash", passed away Aug 31, 2017 at Sunrise Assisted Living of Severna Park, MD.  He was 85.  A retired Navy Commander, naval aviator, and commercial airline pilot, he was born in Ridley Park, PA, near Philadelphia, on December 28, 1931.  He was the son of Marie Ruth Ganss Hertel and Paul Rudolph Hertel, and was raised in Rutledge, PA with a brother, Paul, and a sister, Joan.

John attended Fishburne Military High School in Virginia and spent summers at Greenwood Lake, NY with grandparents, parents, siblings, cousins and friends while swimming, boating, and waterskiing.  He loved the outdoors while developing an affinity for building, fixing or repairing most anything.  He attended Penn State University where he wrestled as a heavyweight on the club wrestling team and then entered the Navy in 1954, earning his Naval Aviator wings in 1956.  John performed the 'shakedown' cruise for the aircraft carrier USS SARATOGA and then deployed in USS RANDOLPH, flying the Skyraider attack aircraft with the VA-45 Blackbirds.  After active duty he held several flying jobs, including a stint in Haiti flying a sea plane to export lobsters.  He returned to active duty in 1962 and was stationed in China Lake, CA where he flew fixed wing aircraft and helicopters, performing multiple search and rescue flights to rescue stranded hikers.  In 1966 he moved to Lake Valhalla in Montville, NJ to commence his second career as a pilot for American Airlines while remaining in the Naval Reserve.  For 25 years, he flew as First Officer on the 727 and then as Captain on the 727 and the DC-10, traveling extensively with his family and spending most of his free time at Greenwood Lake, always with one of his beloved Labrador Retrievers at his side.  Along with a love for weight-lifting, tennis and waterskiing, John tinkered on countless projects, large and small, gleaning notable joy at his restoration of the family's 1940 Chris Craft powerboat.   He is preceded in death by his wife of 46 years, Katherine Lockhart, of St. Davids, PA, with whom he had three children who survive him: Susan DeLuca (Paul) of Richmond, VA; Diane Mahon (Michael) of Edmond, OK; and Stephen Hertel (Keely) of Arnold, MD.  Known for his love of family, ready laugh and easygoing demeanor, he was appreciated as an outstanding waterski instructor by all eight of his grandchildren: Krista, Kimberly, Gregory, Courtney, Ryan, Brendan, Eric and Kevin, all of whom will miss his sense of humor that he maintained until the end.

A memorial service will be held at the First Presbyterian Church of Boonton, 513 Birch Street, Boonton, NJ, at 9:30am on Saturday, October 7.  In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research, the disease that took John's wife years ago.

Online condolences may be made at www.barrancofuneralhome.com