Obituary: John Freeman Schlicting

Longtime Juneauite and father, John Freeman Schlicting entered the cosmos June 16, 2026, following complications due to blood cancer and kidney disease. He died at Providence Hospital in Anchorage with his daughter Sally by his side. He was 84.

John Freeman Schlicting

John was born Feb. 16, 1942, in Seattle to parents Hugh and Alyce Schlicting. Of Swedish, German, and Scottish descent, he grew up in Bellevue, Washington, and spent summers at the family home at Hunts Point. 

Early on, John developed a fondness for explosives and propulsion devices. He and his friend Tom Campbell were notorious for launching rockets and setting off bombs in their backyards that would sometimes result in the authorities being called.

This pastime influenced John’s decision to major in chemistry at the University of Washington, where he continued to set off smoke bombs in the dorms and at one point, in the steam tunnels beneath what is now Red Square at UW during a military parade in the early ‘60s.

John attended UW through the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps. In his final year, he switched to a major in anthropology, graduating with a B.S. and a minor in chemistry. During his time at UW, he met some interesting people, including a French literature major named Patty Weaver (Schied) from Juneau, and the famed martial artist Bruce Lee, who lived in his apartment building and influenced his interest in martial arts later in life.

After graduating from UW in 1965, John and Patty married and moved to Tucson, Arizona, where John was stationed at Davis Monthan AFB as an Air Force captain in the 571st missile squadron, pulling alerts at an underground Titan II missile silo. His assignment was part of the nation's Strategic Air Command for nuclear deterrence during the Cold War. The Titan II could launch in 58 seconds and deliver a nine-megaton thermonuclear warhead to its target more than 6,000 miles away in less than 30 minutes. Fortunately, it was one rocket he never had to launch.

John and Patty’s daughter Sally was born in Tucson in 1967. In May of 1969, after John completed his four years of military service as well as night classes in mathematics at the University of Arizona, the family moved back to Patty’s hometown of Juneau where he was drawn to the fishing, hunting, and wild beauty. He did a short stint as a baggage handler with Pacific Northern Airlines before accepting a job as a statistician and labor markets analyst with the Alaska Department of Labor in June of 1969. 

In 1971, John and Patty gave birth to their son, Erin. By this time, the family had moved from downtown Juneau to a house at Mile 18 Glacier Highway where John lived for much of the rest of his life. 

As part of his job with the Department of Labor, John authored articles in the agency’s Trends Magazine, including a piece in 1973 on the challenges of transporting Alaska’s natural gas from Prudhoe Bay to Lower 48 markets. He later went on to work as a research analyst for Vocational Rehabilitation at the Department of Education. 

In 1980, John received his master’s in public administration from the University of Alaska Southeast. He continued working at the Department of Education until his retirement in 1990. Throughout his time as a state employee, he also enjoyed fishing in the waters north and west of Tee Harbor, sometimes with Erin and Sally. He commercially fished for salmon every weekend each summer with Erin joining him as a teenager. Together they would go out for three to four days at a time in a 20-foot C-Dory, fishing the west side of Admiralty Island and later in Icy Strait — selling fish in Excursion Inlet. 

During their marriage, John and Patty loved throwing dinner parties. Patty, an excellent cook, prepared delicious feasts while John used his chemistry talents to create fantastic cocktails. Following an amicable divorce in 1980, John realized if he wanted to keep eating great food, he would have to learn to cook himself. So he did. He became adept at Szechuan, Thai, Indian, and other cuisines, usually quite spicy. He also enjoyed hiking and foraging for berries, devil's club tips, and other local edibles to make liqueurs, and grew many of his own vegetables and herbs on his sunny front porch at the house at Mile 18.

John was a strong swimmer who frequented the Augustus Brown Pool and was a regular at the sauna for decades. He also was a dedicated weightlifter and became a devoted student of the martial art, Muay Thai boxing, under the tutelage of Ajarn Chai Sirisute the "Godfather of American Muay Thai," who brought the sport to the USA. Chai loved coming to Juneau annually to teach workshops because John would take him fishing. 

John loved attending movies, theatre, opera, and a wide range of local music performances including folk, jazz, rock, and classical music, particularly those where his flute-playing daughter Sally was performing.

He had a great sense of humor, frequently told dirty jokes, and was notorious for his very loud laugh in public settings. He was also a deep lover of science fiction, both in literature and in film. John had a keen interest in quantum physics and especially string theory as a unifying “theory of everything” to explain the forces of the universe. 

His library included books on parapsychology, altered states of consciousness, the writings of Carlos Casteñeda, Stephen Hawking, and many authors on black holes, quarks, quantum physics and string theory. He named his last cat, Max, after the cosmologist/physicist Max Tegmark of MIT. 

John is survived by his daughter Sally Schlichting and husband Bob King of Juneau; son Erin Schlicting, wife Beth, and grandson David of Exeter, Rhode Island; brother Doug Schlicting and wife Betty of Edmonds, Washington; sister Sylvia Gonyea of Snohomish, Washington; along with nieces, nephews, and cousins throughout Washington and Oregon. 

He is also fondly remembered by his former wife Patty of Juneau and close friends Tom Campbell of Washington, Beth Leibowitz of Juneau, Maria Geronimo of Minnesota, and others, as well as members of the Juneau martial arts community.   

A wake will be held in early August. For more information on attending, contact thaikick@aol.com.