John Brinling, 75, of East Warren, passed away suddenly at Fletcher Allen Health Care on Thursday, April 26, 2012. The EMTs and the hospital staff at the ICU tried their best to reverse the severe cardiac arrest he had experienced. His wife, Florence, and daughter, Traci, as well as other close friends were there to say goodbye.
John was born in Pittsburgh, PA, on June 8, 1936, the son of Noble and Francis Brinling (deceased) and older brother to Joan Tinker of Omaha, NE.
After high school, John won a scholarship to Duquesne University where he received a BS in pharmacy and his pharmacy license. He continued to win scholarships to University of Chicago for an MS in pharmacology and on to Columbia to start on his doctorate, also in pharmacology. During his doctoral studies he worked as a researcher and published several scientific papers.
Before finishing his doctorate, he decided to change professions, something that he did several times in his life. He became a tech writer for IBM in White Plains, NY. He became a member in the MENSA society and joined a computer software firm, ACT. While working at ACT he moved away from tech writing to writing software. With ACT he worked on many diverse projects, such as a flight simulator for MIT. He eventually found his way to Italy to join the team writing a COBOL compiler for a new Honeywell computer.
It was in Italy that he and his wife Florence’s paths crossed. She started working for ACT and was sent to Italy to join the project. They married in 1975, and once again John wanted to change his vocation and they took two years to live in England where John pursued the one true passion he had his entire life, writing. He wrote two novels and was accepted as a client by a literary agent, Maximilian Becker. The agent was getting positive responses from several major publishers for both of John’s books, when tragedy struck and Max passed away. By this time John and Florence had returned to the States where John became a father, one of his favorite roles in his life. The new responsibility sent John back to working with computers. He and his wife worked together for many years as partners in Brinling Associates.
When he retired, he restarted his writing, first screen plays (he entered several screen play contests and made it to the finals and/or semi-finals), then he discovered e-publishing! He spent his days and many nights, writing, blogging with other writers and readers, promoting his novels. This was his true passion. He has seven novels and five short stories on Amazon.com, Smashwords, Barnes &Noble, etc. Finally, he was able to see his work being read by non-family members and getting some great reviews.
John was a “gentle giant” at 6 foot, 4 inches and had a little more weight than we would want to reveal. He was always ready to get you to laugh and you always knew he would be there for support. He will be greatly missed by his wife, daughter, extended family and many friends, near and far.
There will be a celebration of John’s life on May 19 at the family home of 35 years, on Prickly Mountain in East Warren. It will start at 1 p.m. It will be very casual as John hated to dress up!
In lieu of flowers we would appreciate contributions in his memory be made to charities of your choice.
