Retired Navy Capt. John Saunders Kilner Jr.

08/17/2005

Retired Navy Capt. John Saunders Kilner Jr., 88, of North Church Street died Wednesday at home. Born in Rye, N.Y., on Jan. 16, 1917, son of John S. Kilner Sr. and Alice Denny Kilner, he attended Wayne State University and the University of Michigan. He was employed by Kilner Co. in Detroit before his naval career. In 1939, he enlisted in the Navy and completed flight training in Pensacola, Fla., before being sent to Hawaii in 1940, where he served as a patrol bomber (PBY) pilot. Mr. Kilner was a survivor of the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 and went on to a 26-year naval career, retiring to Stockbridge in 1965. His career included aviation assignments in the Mediterranean on the island of Malta, as well as in California, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland and Washington, D.C. He was also a test pilot and a member of the Patuxent River Naval Test Pilot School, from which the first U.S. astronauts were chosen. He subsequently became the assistant director of flight tests at the Naval Air Test Center at Patuxent River. He also experienced sea duty as the executive officer of the aircraft carrier USS Tarawa. In 1960, Mr. Kilner was appointed naval attachÃ© to Argentina in Buenos Aires, where he and his family lived until 1962. His last assignment was as naval liaison to GE in Pittsfield, where he represented the Navy's interest in the Polaris Missile program. Following his retirement, he helped found the Berkshire Glider Club and was active as a flight instructor at both the Pittsfield and Great Barrington airports. He also was a pilot for the aerial mapping company Cole East of North Adams, and a corporate pilot for Vermeer Corp. He was a member of Kaneohe Klippers, the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association and Squadron VP11, and a past president of the Laurel Hill Association. He and his wife, the former Vivian "Bo" Sanger, were married April 26, 1945, in Bethesda, Md.. Besides his wife, he leaves a son, John S. Kilner III of Lee; two daughters, Donna Kilner Gray of Glendale and Jacqueline A. Kilner of Stockbridge; a sister, Jane Denny of Madison, Wis., and two grandchildren. FUNERAL NOTICE -- A memorial service for retired Navy Capt. John Saunders Kilner Jr. will be Friday, Aug. 26, at 2 at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Stockbridge. Those who desire may make contributions in his memory to the Laurel Hill Association or the Patuxent River Naval Air Museum through FINNERTY & STEVENS FUNERAL HOME, 426 Main St., Great Barrington, MA 01230. He also leaves two grandchildren, Abigail and Jonathan Gray, and numerous nieces and nephews. He was predeceased by two brothers, Herbert D. Kilner and Charles S. Kilner, and by a sister, Alice Trusdall.

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Retired Navy Capt. John Saunders Kilner Jr.

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