John Figueras, 94, was born in Rochester, NY, and died July 4, 2019, in Brewster, MA.
He is survived by his wife Joann Little (Israel) Figueras; three children, Richard, Julia, John;
grandchildren Ana, John, Isaac, Molly, Maggie; sister Dolores Edwards; and Joann’s children,
Christian, Todd, and Mary. His oldest child, Anita, died last month. John was previously
married to Janet Hickman and Patricia McVeigh Figueras, deceased.
John’s undergraduate work at the University of Rochester was interrupted by WWII,
where he served in the Army and was active in both theaters before returning to graduate. He
completed his formal education at the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign with a PhD in
Chemistry.
He had a 30-year career as a Research Chemist with Kodak in Rochester, NY, working in
emulsion research, instant color photography, analytical science, and clinical chemistry. He was
granted eight patents and published over 30 papers in chemical and computer applications.
John retired at age 58 and began a second career in teaching, first in Chemistry at the
University of Rochester and later in Computer Science at SUNY Geneseo. There, he met his
wife Joann, and they moved to Cape Cod in 1992. He continued to write and publish computer
programs, enjoy classical music, travel—especially by motorhome or bicycle, and devour
political news. He experimented with digital photography and had several shows at the
Brewster Library. John never stopped learning; one of the books by his chair when he died was
Neural Computing Theory and Practice, he was reading Lord Jim, and particularly enjoying a
recent recording of the Goldberg Variations. He will be remembered as an intelligent, honest,
and kind man who also liked corny jokes and bad puns.