John C. Roberts, 70, doctor, pilot, father passed away Sunday.
Dr. John Carl Roberts was born to Carl Matthew Roberts and June Maureen Roberts (Neslund) in Corpus Christi, Texas on Nov. 9, 1944. He lived in Corpus Christi during his early childhood, spending summers with grandparents in Cozad, Nebraska, until his family moved to Chicago, then to Wheaton, Illinois, where he graduated from high school in 1963. During those early years he developed an appreciation for big band and classical music, which inspired him to learn the French horn, and an intense passion for flying that would continue throughout his life.
Undergraduate and graduate level studies between 1967 and 1971 began to chart his life’s path. While studying zoology as a pre-med student at the University of Illinois, he played the French horn in the Marching Illini, started flying lessons, and met his wife-to-be, Karon (Bireline). He graduated in 1967 and started medical school at the Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine the same year. In 1971 he graduated from the medical program and married Karon, piloting a single-engine Cessna to the Bahamas for their honeymoon.
A 14-year career in the U.S. Navy presented the opportunity to travel and pursue his passions in medicine, flying, and sailing. He completed a naval medical internship at the Chelsea Naval Hospital in Massachusetts in 1972 and then moved to Pensacola, Florida, where he started Flight Surgeon Training. He received his Flight Surgeon Wings in 1973 and then moved to Willow Grove, Pennsylvania, where he trained in navy airplanes and practiced medicine as a Flight Surgeon. In 1975 he moved to Virginia Beach, where he worked extra shifts at night to save money—moonlighting his way to buy a sailboat, which he and Karon aptly named Moonlight. He was stationed at Virginia Beach and then in Portsmouth, Virginia, to complete his residency between 1976 and 1980. In his free time he enjoyed sailing the Moonlight in the Chesapeake Bay with Karon. Their first child, a daughter, was born in 1978. John and his family moved to his final military station in Millington, Tennessee, in 1980 and their second child, a son, was born two years later. They moved to Washington, Indiana, in 1985 after he was honorably discharged from military service.
He practiced obstetrics and gynecology and continued to fly while living in Washington. Dedicated to his practice and his patients, he delivered an estimated 2,000 or more babies and one million corny jokes before retiring in 2003. While not at the hospital, he could often be found at the Daviess County Airport or somewhere in the skies over southern Indiana. He learned to fly a twin-engine Beechcraft, once safely piloting an emergency landing after an engine suddenly stopped midair. He also flew a T-6 Texan, a Merlin propjet, and a helicopter that he and a friend built from a kit. He and Karon moved to Columbus, Ohio, in 2009 and to Fishers, Indiana, in 2014, both times to be near their grandchildren.
After a five-year battle with Parkinson’s disease, his soul was set free to fly the clear heavenly skies on Oct.11, 2015. He went peacefully while in the company of his immediate family. He is survived by his wife of 44 years, Karon Lynne Roberts, and their two adult children: daughter, Lisa Michelle Luoma (Kevin) of Fishers, and son, Eric John Roberts of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Also surviving are his sister, Tonya Goodnow (James) of Denton, Texas, and three grandchildren, Carter, Lane, and Marin Luoma.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that you please make donations to the National Parkinson Foundation in memory of John at http://prkorg.convio.net/goto/JohnCRoberts. A private service will be held in his honor. Condolences can be delivered to P.O. Box 7016, Fishers IN 46038 or posted at https://indianafuneralcare.com/obituary/john-c-roberts.