John Ellis, Placitas, NM

John A Ellis, born June 30, 1945, in Fresno California, passed away in the home he designed and built in Placitas, New Mexico on November 26, 2024. He is survived by his wife of 58 years, Carol Whitten Ellis, their daughter, Jennifer Ellis, her husband, Brian Parks and their daughter, Maggie Parks. He is preceded in death by his brother, Steven, sister Marcia Esparza and their parents Al and Evelyn Ellis.

John graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with both a Bachelor of Arts degree and a Master of Architecture. He and Carol stayed in California for their corporate careers, which included, for John, heading corporate architecture for Bank of America and Pacific Gas & Electric.  They then moved to New Mexico as Management Consultants, writing and delivering training materials to improve the performance of managers all over the United States.

While living in California, John went into kidney failure and was fortunate to receive a donor kidney that lasted 40 years. Because he was given this gift of life from an unknown family, he never took his health for granted and was very conscientious about keeping himself healthy.

Moving to New Mexico offered John the opportunity to do two new activities he hadn’t done before. One was to join the New Mexico Wood Turners club, in which he stayed active learning, teaching, mentoring, and supporting the club members. He served on their board for many years. It was during this time he also became active in the American Association of Woodturners, an international woodturning organization, serving on their board of directors. Woodturning was his passion, and as he did with everything he enjoyed, he strived for and achieved perfection. The second was to see the country in a motor home. Together John and Carol traveled through at least 30 states to enjoy the beauty of the country in which they live.