John Dyer IV had only been in Hawaii a few weeks when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. He’d lied about his age to get into the Navy, because he wanted to fight for his country, and his chance came sooner than he might have expected.
The father of five daughters, and one son, he didn’t talk much about his war days when his children were young. But when they got older, he shared some of his stories and journals with them.
“I think he thought us girls wouldn’t be interested,” said Catherine Dyer, a daughter who lives in Atlanta. “But we were very interested.”
Among the journals and log books that he kept during World War II, one entry talks of flying a strike with George Gay, the sole survivor of his squadron during the Battle of Midway, said son-in-law Don Cobbs, of Atlanta. During his military service, Dyer was involved in conflicts off of the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, including North African and South Pacific campaigns. Also a veteran of the Battle of Guadalcanal, he was awarded three Air Medals and the Distinguished Flying Cross for his service.
With no desire to make a career out of military life, Dyer completed his service in the late-‘40s and went back home to New York, where he worked in the textiles industry and started a family.
“He was the best dad,” Lil Dyer Cobbs, said of her father. “And he made all six of us believe each of us was his favorite.”
John Dyer, of Atlanta, died Sunday from complications of congestive heart failure, at Hospice Atlanta. He was 88. A funeral is planned for 10 a.m., Thursday at the Cathedral of Christ the King. A private family burial will follow. H.M. Patterson, Spring Hill, is in charge of arrangements.
In April 1945, while still in the Navy, Dyer married Margaret Taaffe, who died in 1981. The family lived in New York until his job with J.P. Stevens, a textile company, moved them to Atlanta in the ‘60s. He worked until 1987, when he retired from Milliken & Company and took up a life of volunteerism.
He gave his time to a number of organizations including the St. Vincent DePaul Society, the St. Luke Community Kitchen and St. Joseph Hospital Auxiliary. He spent 25 years working with the hospital, and was honored for his service, his children said.
“He volunteered four to five days a week,” Cobbs said of her father. “And he would teach his grandchildren, from an early age, about the gift of giving back.”
In addition to his two daughters, survivors include daughters, Francine Dyer, Margaret Dyer and Emily Dyer Lynch, all of Atlanta; son, John Dyer V of Los Angeles; sister Ruth Dyer Jones of Medford, N.Y.; eight grandchildren; and two great grandchildren.
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