When visitors stopped by the Atlanta area home of John and Gail Capito, there was a good chance they’d get a taste of West Virginia before leaving.
In the basement of their home was an elaborate model train display devoted to his home state that Mr. Capito loved to show off when company called, his wife said.
“He’d take them down there and run the trains for them,” she said. “It was definitely something he enjoyed.”
She said the level of detail exhibited in the display was thanks to a friend, fellow model train enthusiast Richard Ruggles. The two worked together since the early 2000s, designing and building the model, which eventually took up three rooms in the Capitos' basement.
“John would have taken over the whole house if Gail had let him,” joked his younger brother Howard Capito, who lives in Knoxville.
As much as John Capito loved his trains, he had been unable to run them since September, when he became ill, his wife said.
John Miller Capito Jr. of Atlanta died Sunday at Altus House of congestive heart failure. He was 69. A memorial service is scheduled for 1 p.m. Thursday at Northwest Presbyterian Church. Cremation Society of Georgia is in charge of arrangements.
Mr. Capito, born in Charleston, W. Va., was not just into trains, but also their historical significance, Mr. Ruggles said. The two spent a lot of time talking about the coal mines and steam trains of West Virginia, Mr. Ruggles said.
“I know more about that now than ever,” he said with a laugh. “He’d talk about different things and I’d build what he was describing.”
Howard Capito said it is likely his brother John got his love of trains from their father, “who was somewhat of a rail buff.” Their dad had a train that he’d assemble every Christmas Eve, and when the boys woke up the next morning the train would be running around the base of the tree.
Mr. Capito worked in the energy industry from his youth, family members said. His father made a living in the gas and coal business, and Mr. Capito worked with him during the summer months, his brother Howard said.
At the time of his death, Mr. Capito was managing partner of Black Crow Oil, a West Virginia oil and gas production company with offices in Atlanta, family members said.
In addition to his trains Mr. Capito found great satisfaction in being "the self-appointed family genealogist,” his brother said.
Mrs. Capito said her husband, who had a quick sense of humor, traced his family’s bloodline to Wolfgang Capito, who was born in 1478.
“While he was still working on it he had done the charting of the names and he printed them out and had it pasted on the back of a door, from the top to the floor,” she said. “Then he told the younger people who were getting ready to have children to come pick out names from the list.”
The genealogy project was the only one that didn’t bleed over into other rooms of the house, she joked.
“John kept saying, ‘OK Gail, one day you’re gonna wake up and there’s going to be a hole in the living room floor, because we’re coming upstairs,” she said of the train display. “But I was never really sure he was joking.”
Mr. Capito is also survived by his daughters, Stephanie Capito Nuesse and Ashby Miller Capito of Atlanta; stepson William Wallace Schoettelkotte of Wilmington, N.C.; and four grandchildren.
About the Author
