John served in (Western) Samoa from 1970 to 1971. He worked at the UNESCO Science Office in Apia, on the island of Upolu. Elementary and junior-high science education was new to Samoa and he assisted the UNESCO Science Advisors with 7th- and 8th-grade curriculum development by devising demonstrations using equipment sent by UNESCO. He traveled to schools to distribute equipment and assess needs of science teachers. He also taught Science at the Teacher Training College, and Mathematics at the South Pacific Regional College of Tropical Agriculture in Alafua. John lived in a banana plantation near town and ate taro, palusami, and canned fish with the guys at work every day. After returning to the US, John earned a Master's Degree in Physics at UCLA in 1978, and worked as a physicist at The Aerospace Corporation in El Segundo for 37 years, retiring in 2012.
