John Charles Coffin, 92, of Coupeville, WA, son of Charles Cressy and Lois Coffin, loving husband to Sharon Coffin, passed away peacefully in his home after a long battle with dementia, on June 29th, 2024.

Son of a Navy father who helped to build the Naval Air Station in the early 1940’s, John always felt lucky to spend most of his life on Whidbey Island. As a boy he loved hunting and fishing with his dog “Butch” in the lakes and forests along West Beach Road. John attended school in the Coupeville School District most of his life and graduated in Los Angeles when his father received orders during his senior year in 1950. He returned to the Pacific Northwest after being accepted to the ROTC Program at the University of Washington. As a “Husky” he was an “expert” on the university’s rifle team, and at 20 years old he traveled all the way around South America on his first Navy ship as a midshipman. In 1954 he graduated and began his Marine Corps career. He married college sweetheart, Barbara, and they later had five children together.

John “Silky” Coffin, loved his 23 year career in the Marine Corps, which included flying A 4 and F 4 Phantoms in the Vietnam war during the 1960’s. Always thinking of his family while at war, he shared many photos of birds and insects that he saw in the jungle near where he was stationed. He even mailed a Komodo dragon monitor lizard to his kids, which they loved and still remember. At the end of his military career in 1975, he returned to Whidbey Island to begin a second career as a real estate broker.

John spent his final four decades living with his wife, Sharon, in their home near West Beach Road overlooking the same beaches and trees where he grew up as a boy. During these years he enjoyed walking for miles along these beaches collecting agates and viewing the sea life among the rocks at low tide, and he once found two Woolly Mammoth teeth along the cliffs near Ebey’s Landing, estimated to be over 5,000 years old.

John was predeceased by his parents, Charles and Lois, his sister Lois Ann, his two sons, John and Ken, and two of his daughters Cindy and Debbie. He is survived by wife, Sharon, daughter Vicki and son in law Ron Skilbeck, stepson Marc Vallot, 15 grandchildren and 40 great grandchildren.