Retired Navy Personnelman E-6, Jon Mayo Japport, was honored Friday, March 31, during the monthly Humboldt Heroes celebration. The ceremony was held at Scott Hammond’s State Farm office in downtown Eureka. Members of the public gathered at the office to honor this great local hero!

JON JAPPORT HONORED AS A HUMBOLDT HERO

Jon Japport was born in Chicago, Illinois on October 5, 1938. His family moved to Brooklyn, Indiana where he attended a four-room schoolhouse for children in all eight grades. He attended Martinsville High School in Indiana, where he played football and ran track.

Just before Jon Japport’s senior year in high school, his family had to move to Santa Rosa, California for his father’s health. He worked in his uncle’s store and played football at Santa Rosa High School. Jon was only 16 and finished all his high school credits by the middle of his senior year, so he attended Santa Rosa College in the Spring semester.

For 31 years Jon Japport served proudly in the Navy. At age 18, he was sent to San Diego to personnel school. He was later ordered to the North Chapel in San Diego at the Naval Training Center, where he served as a chaplain’s assistant for five months, working for five priests, a Jewish rabbi, and 25 protestant chaplains on rotation. He also attended San Diego State College while he was there.

One of Jon Japport’s buddies talked him into applying for Humboldt State and he started there as a junior in 1968. Jon used that time to interview 13 different ladies to see if they were marriage material. He was thrilled to choose Violet (nicknamed Cricket) and they’ll have been married for 61 years this June.

Jon was sent to North Island Naval Air Station. His squadron embarked and debarked on six troop transports. Their unit controlled the air support for the Marines when they landed. Jon made two West Pac Cruises, serving as a Sound Powered Phone Talker. During those 18 months, he went to Okinawa, Japan, Guam, the Philippines, and Hawaii, both before and after it became a state.

In January 1970, Jon was released from active duty and immediately joined the Reserves. He went back to Santa Rosa Jr College while working for Miller’s TV & Radio and at other interesting jobs while he was in school. Jon worked for Montgomery Ward in Santa Rosa and Eureka until he went back to school at Humboldt State University to get his teaching degree.

He substitute-taught all the area schools until he got a degree in Special Education. He worked for 25 years combined at McKinleyville High School and then at Arcata High School in their Special Education programs, until his retirement in 1994. He then supervised student teachers at HSU for four years.

Throughout the years, Jon has bought property and managed rentals in Humboldt County. He has been a Mason for 54 years, and served as Master of Semper Vires in 1970. Jon has served the youth of this community through various leadership roles at
camps and in DeMolay, Job’s Daughters, and the Boy Scouts of America. He served at three National Boy Scout Jamborees on behalf of the US Navy and directed the Boy Scout Summer Camp at Ruth Lake for six years. He is also famous for being the BayShore Mall Santa Claus on and off for 30 years.

Violet and Jon are proud of their children and grateful that they, like their parents, have made the choice to call Humboldt their home. They love their son Jon Japport Jr, his fiancé MaryAnn, and their combined family of five boys: Jonny, Noah, Brian, Reese, and Miles and great granddaughter, Alyssa. They love their daughter Virginia, son-in-law Troy Woods, and their six children: Jesse, Jarrid, Sara, Sam, Bailey, and Betsy and their newest great-grandbaby Liam.

DO YOU KNOW A HUMBOLDT HERO?

You’re invited each month on the last Friday of the month at noon! Come down to Scott Hammond’s State Farm office located at 537 7th Street in Eureka. If you have a Humboldt Hero you’d like to see honored, please contact Scott Hammond at 1-707-444-2504.

_{Lost Coast Populist is a Patriot owned News Publication. We truly appreciate what Scott Hammond and other great local business owners are doing to honor veterans in our community.}