Lt. Hutchins

Kerrville Lieutenant Colonel John Sidney Hutchins, 83, died Saturday January 30, in a San Antonio hospital. He was born in 1926, at the U. S. Public Health Service Hospital in Colon, Panama, to then First Lieutenant later Colonel Don L. Hutchins, U. S. Air Corps, and Eva L. Hutchins while they were stationed at France Field in the Canal Zone. John was predeceased by his parents and sister, Barbara Hutchins Raborn, a longtime resident of Kerrville.

John joined the U. S. Army Air Corps and later graduated from Officer Candidate School at Ft. Riley, Kansas, and Engineers Basic School in Ft. Belvoir, Virginia, becoming a commissioned officer in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. He attended Iowa State University at Ames and later, while on active duty, earned a B.A. at the University of Nebraska in Omaha. During his 22 years of active service, John saw duty in the Japan Occupation, Korean Conflict, Korean Peace, Vietnam Conflict, and NATO assignments in Europe and Alaska for three years each, achieving the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. While on duty in Germany, John brought Boy Scouting to Rhein Main Air Base near Frankfurt. After retirement from active duty military service in January of 1970, he moved with his wife and sons to Kerrville, where he was an active member of St. Peters Episcopal Church, serving terms on the Vestry and leading youth activities of the church. John formed the Kerrville Swimming Club in the 1980s. He was also a member of the Hill Country Chapter 31 of the Texas Society of the Sons of the American Revolution and a life member of the American Legion and The Veterans of Foreign Wars.

After retirement, John attended Schreiner College and Trinity University in San Antonio, earning a Texas Teaching Certificate. Because he believed deeply that young people needed to value and appreciate the privileges and duties of their American citizenship, John then taught history and government at Oliver Wendell Holmes High School in San Antonio for 8 years, becoming the Social Studies Department Chairman soon after joining the faculty. He also was an avid golfer.

He is survived by Patricia Anne Howell Hutchins, his wife of 60 years sons John Patrick Hutchins and wife Karla of Austin, TX Donovan Bartlett Hutchins of The Woodlands, TX Lincoln Christopher Hutchins of Austin, TX, who spent 12 years in the Army Medical Corps, carrying on a long family tradition of military service. John has two grandsons, Nathan Patrick Hutchins and Christopher John Hutchins.

Services will be conducted by Father Tom Murray at St. Peters Episcopal Church at 9:30 A.M. Friday, the 5th of February. A graveside service will be held at Ft. Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio, Friday the 5th, at 1:45 P.M. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorial donations be made to the church or charity of ones choice.

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