JOHN M. PEACOCK

John McCaslin Peacock died August 17 ^th , 2022

John was born in Cleveland, Ohio on October 5, 1925, the son of David W. K. and Beryl McCaslin Peacock.  When he was several years old his family moved East, and John with his older brother David Jr. grew up on a dairy farm in Flanders, N.J.  He attended The Morristown School, graduating in 1942 and entered Princeton that year at age 16.  The following year he enlisted in the Navy V-12 officer training program and was commissioned an Ensign in 1945.  He then served for a year on troop transports bringing World War II troops home from Europe and the Far East.

After the war, John returned to Princeton graduating with an engineering degree in 1947.  For Several years he worked as a field construction engineer for Western Electric, then he and his brother spent three years managing their family farm.  In 1953 he returned to his engineering profession as a Member of the Technical Staff at Bell Laboratories.  He had a number of assignments at Bell Labs in both New Jersey and Baltimore, ranging from the design of large structures to very small devices in the telecom network.  He was also involved with developing submarine cable systems for the Navy anti-submarine warfare program.  Later, as Department head he was responsible for the Bell Labs cable development program and then was Project Manager for development of a high capacity long-haul telecom transmission system.

In 1971 John transferred to the AT&T headquarters staff where he was involved with setting development priorities for Bell Labs and managing the introduction of new technology and network services into the Bell Operation Company networks.  In 1979 he was assigned as an Operations Manager in a small in-house think-tank to do the front-end strategic planning for the divestiture of the various Bell System companies and the restructuring of the nation's telecom industry.

John retired from AT&T in 1981 at age 55.  He spent a 2 year "sabbatical" with his wife Meg, on their sailboat in the Bahamas and their summer home on Block Island.  He then took up a new career as an International Consultant in telecom technology and management.  He had a retainer contract with AT&T International as an advisor to their staff and also as a consultant working directly with AT&T clients around the world.  Following this John worked as a volunteer consultant for the International Executive Service Corps, affiliated with the US Aid program, doing projects in developing countries.  In all he worked as a consultant in nine foreign countries.

John and Meg bought their house in Round Pond, Maine in 1989 moving there permanently in 1991.  They have been dedicated sailors spending time in their boat up and down the east coast and in Hopetown, Bahamas.  John has been a Board member at Kieve, the Skidompha Library and Lincoln County Healthcare the parent of the two hospitals in Damariscotta and Boothbay Harbor.

He is survived by his wife Meg, by his son John Jr., and his daughter Maggie, son-in-law Todd Sowers and three grandchildren Nick, Rosie and Thomas Sowers.

Per John's wishes, there will not be any public services at this time.