John Newland Redwine II 1978-2011

REDWINE, PRENTICE

Posted By: Connie Swearingen-Volunteer (email)
Date: 1/31/2013 at 12:58:41

Sioux City Journal
25 December 2011

SIOUX CITY -- John Newland Redwine II, 33, of Beirut, Lebanon, formerly of Sioux City, died tragically Sunday, Dec. 18, 2011, doing what he loved, alpine climbing in the Lebanon Mountains.

Services will be 10:30 a.m. Tuesday at Grace United Methodist Church in Sioux City. Burial will be in Memorial Park Cemetery. Visitation will be 4 to 8 p.m. Monday, with the family present 5 to 7 p.m., at Morningside Chapel, Christy-Smith Funeral Home.

John was born June 13, 1978, in Kansas City, Mo., to Dr. John and Barbara Redwine. The family moved to Sioux City, where John attended Clark Grade School, Hoover Middle School and graduated from Sioux City North High School in 1996. Between earning two bachelor's degrees at the University of Montana and a master's degree at the American University of Beirut, he studied for two years at the Arabic Language Institute in Fez, Morocco and was fluent in both spoken and written Arabic.

While attending the American University of Beirut, John met and fell in love with his future wife, Irina Isham Prentice. They were married in Cyprus in 2008.

John served in many capacities as an independent public relations and communications professional. At the time of his death, he was the communications officer and editor on a regional cooperation project on water issues for the United Nations Regional Economic and Social Development Commission in Western Asia and the German Federal Institute for Geo-Science and Natural Resources in Beirut. He also had served as a freelance producer and journalist at Fox News, project director at Albany Associates, managing editor at Executive Magazine, analyst and copy editor at the Middle East Reporter and desk editor at ABC News. He recently helped organize the very successful Banff Mountain Film Festival Beirut.

John had many publications in political, governmental and professional journals and was well respected by his peers. In their leisure time, John and his wife, Irina, enjoyed mountain climbing, motorcycling, camping and entertaining their many friends across the Middle East and the world. He was a skilled alpinist and big-wall climber. He climbed extensively in Yosemite and Zion National Parks, climbed the nose on El Capitan, six of the seven Grand Tetons in one day, on-sited classic routes in Stanage, Mont Blanc and Wadi Rum and established new routes in Morocco, Lebanon and many other countries. John took great pride in introducing others to climbing and worked at building the capacity of the climbing community in Lebanon.

Two months ago, John and Irina welcomed their first child into the world, Winston Prentice Redwine. Irina and he survive, as do John's parents, Dr. John and Barbara Redwine of Rogers, Ark.; his two brothers, William Redwine and his wife Brooke of Sioux City, and Adam Redwine and his close friend Aliya Gordon of Augusta, Ga.; and many aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews.