John Christopher Leeds

October 20, 1955 – May 31, 2026

It is with heavy hearts that we announce the passing of John Christopher Leeds — a beloved husband, father, grandfather, brother, son, and friend — who left us on May 31st, 2026 under the glow of a full moon. Born on October 20th, 1955, in Woodbury, New Jersey, John lived his life with his hands, his mind, and his whole heart.

To know John was to know someone who could fix anything, build anything, and explain anything. He had a mechanic’s mind of rare depth — the kind that could hear an engine and know its problem, or look at a broken system and see, instantly, how to make it work again. His practical knowledge was vast and hard-won, accumulated over decades of doing: as a diesel mechanic in his earlier years, as a business owner alongside his wife Kathi when the two of them ran C.M. Tugs in Port Deposit, Maryland, and through every project and challenge life put in front of him. John was a doer in the truest sense — a jack of all trades who was, in fact, a master of most.

John possessed a breadth of knowledge that few could match, and he shared it with anyone who needed it, without hesitation and without condition. He operated from a deep, unshakeable belief in equality and mutual respect, and it showed in everything he did — the way he treated people, the way he showed up for family and strangers alike, the way he always found time to help. He stood up for those who needed it and never asked for recognition in return. His heart was big and his energy limitless — he would drop whatever he was doing to lend a hand, and he meant it every time.

In the final chapter of his working life, John took on something new: he transitioned to driving for Maryland Portable Concrete, embracing a fresh challenge well past the age when most people stop challenging themselves. He was proud of that — proud of the work, proud of proving that curiosity and capability don’t have an expiration date. He retired five years ago, but the satisfaction of that reinvention never left him.

True to form, when John identified something that needed fixing, he got to work — even when the thing that needed fixing was himself. Turning inward with honesty and courage, he faced his struggles with clear eyes and a genuine desire to change. He did the hard work of introspection and then, crucially, acted on what he found. What emerged was a peace he had truly earned, a deeper capacity for joy, and a more expansive understanding of others. The community he found along that journey, and the people he touched within it, gave him a foundation for deeper connection, a commitment to self-care, and an abiding belief that every person carries a unique story, deserves support, and has the right to live life on their own terms.

The open water was John’s sanctuary, and it had been since childhood. Growing up near the Jersey Shore, he came of age among the waves — the salt air and the pull of the tide woven into him from the very beginning. That love never left. In his later years he found a new coastal home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, where the quieter rhythms of the seaside town and its shore offered a different kind of peace. And out on the water itself, nothing compared to being at the helm of his vintage Grady White — a boat he knew intimately, having spent countless hours tinkering with it, improving it, keeping it exactly right. With the wind in his hair and the sun warm on his back, breaking through the waves, John was at home. The water always had a serene, elemental beauty that spoke to him deeply, like his favorite color: that deep, luminous cobalt blue that seems to hold both sky and sea at once.

Meteorology ran through John’s life as a true passion, born of an innate fluency with the natural world. Wherever he was, he kept a weather station of his own making, tracking the constant shifts of sky and atmosphere with the same quiet attentiveness he brought to everything else. The Weather Channel was a lifelong companion, a window into the atmospheric systems he found endlessly fascinating, and he followed it with the same focused curiosity right up until his final days. But John’s gaze didn’t stop at the clouds — he looked further, out past the atmosphere and into the vast reaches of space, with a steady conviction that we are not alone in this universe. In that belief, as in so much else, he brought the analytical mind of a scientist and the heart of a man who never stopped wondering.

Bicycling offered John a similar sense of freedom, and he embraced it with the same physical commitment he brought to everything else. He loved the challenge it gave his body, the rhythm of the road, the feeling of moving through the world under his own power. That love of movement and discovery expanded, in his later years, into a shared life of adventure with Kathi. Together they traveled to nearly all fifty states, drawn especially to the grandeur of America’s national parks — those wide, humbling stretches of wilderness — with Devils Tower holding a particular place in his heart. And their wandering took them beyond American shores as well: to Paris, and to San Sebastián, Spain, where John embraced the world’s wider beauty with the same open curiosity he brought to everything.

He is survived by his loving wife, Kathi Leeds; his children, Jason Kalogiros (Maggie Preston), Kimberly Kates (John), and Bryan Leeds (Tiffany); and his cherished grandchildren, Enzo Kalogiros, Grace Kates, Morgan Kates, Matthew Leeds, and Bradley Leeds. He is also survived by his dear mother, Faye Start Wilson; his sisters, Aileen Schriver and Mary Ann Vitullo; and his brother, Charles Leeds. He was preceded in death by his father, Charles Leeds.

A memorial will be held locally in the coming months, and family and friends are warmly invited to gather, share stories, and celebrate the full and generous life John lived. A reception will follow.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations in memory of John C. Leeds to The Berkeley School, a K–8 independent school in Berkeley, California dedicated to serving the needs of neurodiverse learners and the school home of his beloved grandson Enzo — a cause that reflects his lifelong belief in giving back and his deep conviction that every person deserves support and the chance to thrive. Please donate using the link or QR code below.

John will be profoundly missed. But in every repaired engine, every fixed thing, every person he treated with dignity, every stretch of open water catching the light — his spirit carries on.

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