John Voorheis

     John Voorheis, long-time resident of Mishawaka, Indiana, died peacefully at Memorial Hospital in South Bend, Indiana on January 3, 2026. John was born in Mishawaka on April 1, 1938, and he lived most of his life at the family residence at 540 Webster Street in Mishawaka. That residence was the first home built in what was once called The Oaks, an area west of Battell Park and north of the Saint Joseph River. That residence was the center of John’s life because his parents had long lived there, his friends and neighbors often gathered there, and his business, the Seldom Rest Pottery, was situated in the garage and included John’s backyard gas kiln. On many early mornings, his family, friends, and neighbors would gather there to see the results of an overnight firing in the kiln. John also established a pottery shop across the river at the One Hundred Center in the 1970s where he sold his creations. Part of John’s routine involved a late spring intensive work schedule building an inventory of pots for summer art fairs all over the Midwest. In the winter he often travelled to Florida, Texas, and Arizona to attend art fairs and sell his wares. As time passed, competition became keener in pottery and John grew bored, so he shifted his artwork to photography, computer graphics, and embossed paper designs, especially antique quilt patterns.

     John was not an artist or potter by nature because his interests and background involved mathematics, computers, chemistry, classical music, chess, backgammon, jogging, travel, and solving puzzles. When he first saw a Rubik’s cube, he solved it in hours using mathematical analysis. His B.A. degree from Indiana University in Bloomington in 1959 was in Math not Fine Arts, but he loved taking classes in art history and longed to have the talent of a pianist. In recent years, besides computers, John’s favorite pastimes involved sudoku, cycling along the river, using a stationary reclining bike, and kibbitzing with friends and neighbors on the back porch. John may have loved rather esoteric subjects, but he had an ability to apply his mind to more prosaic endeavors. In the mid-1960s he taught chemistry at New Carlisle High School for a year. He enjoyed teaching and the students appreciated their slightly eccentric teacher. In the late1960s, after working for a few years for Uniroyal in Mishawaka in a computer position, he and a friend named Pete Rossi built a small ranch house off Dragoon Trail in Osceola. John used the money he earned to invest in the stock market, and then journeyed for many months to the West coast and into Mexico and the rest of Central America. While that foray into the stock market ended poorly, his penchant for travel was unabated. Earlier, after graduating from IU, John matriculated at a university in Southern Germany while visiting the family of a German student whom he met in Bloomington, Wolfram von Ostertag.  After his experience in Stuttgart with the Ostertag family, John became a world traveler, usually hitch hiking and walking all over Europe, North Africa, and Turkey. Among the places where John spent a lot of time were: Berlin, Munich, Cannes, London, Paris, the Val d’Aosta in Northern Italy, Tangier, Morocco, Madrid, and all-over provincial France. In later life John visited his brother Richard in Gainesville, Florida, did art fairs in Miami, and eventually travelled with his brother to New Zealand for over a month. John was one of the first people in the neighborhood to run five miles and more a day and then finish by eating a honey dew melon to replenish his electrolytes.

     John never married, but he had many friends. In the last years of his life, many of those friends looked after him. Among those friendly and helpful neighbors were the Harkins family: Stanley and Ruth, before they passed away. More recently, their daughter Amy was a constant presence in John’s life until April 2025. For many years, John had the friendship and assistance of other close neighbors, Laura and Sam Schultz. Among John’s social contacts in the neighborhood were Brian and Tom McLaughlin. John has always kept in touch with old friends from all the schools he attended: Mary Phillips, Main Junior High School, Mishawaka High School, and Indiana University. Friends who have been in communication with John recently include: Jim Braunsdorf of Mishawaka, Ron Bolin of Nanaimo, British Colombia, John Durban of South Bend, Joseph Chomyn of South Bend, Mary Pat Loughlin-Reed of Mishawaka, and Michael & Deise Loughlin of Doral, Florida. For many years John was a fixture at most Loughlin holiday gatherings. In July 1981 Sue Loughlin did a multi-page feature in the South Bend Tribune on John, his pottery, and his associates. Many of John’s close friends passed away years previously. They include: Ostertag, Pete Biddle, Frank Dermody, Pete Rossi of Seattle, Dave Geyer of Mishawaka, and Dave Lloyd of Virginia.

    John is the last living member of the family. When the last of John’s caregivers died suddenly in early April 2025, John reached out to Shelly Brademas and her husband Tom for help. Shelly worked with John many years ago at the One Hundred Center shop, his pottery, and at various art fairs, and she has been a close friend since the late 1960s. Shelly and Tom Brademas have been tireless in their concern for John in the last six months.

   John was preceded in death by his father Warren ‘Doc’ Voorheis, his brother Richard, and his mother Elizabeth. John was very close to his mother, and he cared for her at home until she passed away over a decade ago. They were an exceptionally friendly family and pillars of the community. John will be missed by many people as are the other departed members of his family. Everyone in the Voorheis family including John had rare verbal talents, and they regaled their friends and neighbors with enough stories to fill volumes.

    Per John’s wishes, no formal services are scheduled for this time, and a cremation will take place. Hahn Funeral Home has been entrusted with the final arrangements and extends their deepest sympathies to the Voorheis family.

To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of John Voorheis, please visit our floral store.