John CAZANAS

CAZANAS, MEIERS, LOCKWOOD, LINDLEY, SIEFERS

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 1/18/2009 at 14:12:07

July 10, 2005
Mason City Globe Gazette - Iowa

MASON CITY — John Cazanas, 76, of 340 21st St. S.W., Mason City, died Thursday morning (July 7, 2005) at Good Shepherd Health Center in Mason City. Memorial services will be held at 2 p.m. Tuesday at Fullerton Funeral Home, 123 Second St. S.E., Mason City. Officiating and participating will be Loren Toomsen of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of North Central Iowa and other relatives and friends. John was cremated at Cremation Services of North Iowa. The family will greet friends one hour prior to services on Tuesday at the funeral home. Those planning an expression of sympathy may wish to consider memorials to the John Cazanas Memorial Fund in care of Maryellen.

John was born on Dec. 27, 1928, in Kansas City, Mo., the only child of John and Vasiliki "Papavasileou" Cazanas. He graduated from Mason City High School with the class of 1947. He continued his education at Florida State, receiving a B.A. degree in 1951, and his M.A. degree from Mankato State in 1969. He began his 39-year career as a teacher, mentor and leader at Vernon Consolidated School near Renwick, Iowa, then Emmetsburg and finally at the Rudd-Rockford-Marble Rock Schools (R-R-MR school district) where he retired in 1990. He was united in marriage to Maryellen Meiers on Aug. 21, 1954, at the Greek Orthodox Church in Mason City. To this union was born three daughters. John helped organize the R-R-MR Teachers Association and served as chief negotiator at the bargaining table for the teachers. After retirement, he won a seat on the R-R-MR Education Board. He was a member of the Mason City and Charles City Toastmasters, and served as the area Governor of Northeast Area Toastmasters. He received the Toastmaster Of The Year award in 1977. John really put the R-R- MR school district on the map beginning in 1985, when he began applying to the national Teacher in Space program. He was Iowa's top finalist and one of 114 national finalists. Despite the Challenger tragedy, which killed teacher Christa McAuliffe and the other crew members, John said he wouldn't hesitate to go up in space any time. It was fitting that John received the Christa McAuliffe Fellowship grant. With help from six communication educators, he wrote his second book, "A Unified Multi-Skills High School Approach of the Teaching of Communications." His goal was to keep teachers coming up with new ways to help teach critical thinking skills. The book was used in 35 states and is available free through the AEA. His first book was a history textbook co-written in 1984 with Kathleen Baka and Elizabeth Detering at John Carroll University in Cleveland.

After the Teacher in Space program, he was named "Space Ambassador" to help spread NASA's message. He gave speeches and presentations to schools and civic groups and continued to keep in touch with NASA. Of the experience, he said, "We went to Washington, D.C., Cape Kennedy, and Huntsville, Alabama, and learned more than we ever thought possible about the space program. It was fascinating, not to mention the caliber of teachers who were involved. If we could have gotten all 114 of those top finalists together in one building, we could have driven one or two principals crazy per year." John served as the Chairman of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of North Central Iowa and volunteered as a disc jockey at KCMR radio station. He had his own weekly show called "The Treasure Chest" and had many devoted fans. After retirement in 1990, John and Maryellen took their long overdue trip overseas to Greece, visiting relatives. For many years, John rode in the Des Moines Register's Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa (RAGBRAI). During the 1992 RAGBRAI, John suffered a stroke and fell, causing severe head injury thus robbing him of the communication skills he was so good at.

Those thankful in sharing John's life include his wife of 50 years Maryellen; three daughters: Vicki Siefers and her husband, Dick, of Coralville, and their two children: Andrea and Kyle Siefers, Penny Cazanas of North Liberty, and Joanna Lindley and her husband, Scot, of Nora Springs. Also close were his cousins, Dick Lockwood of Tubec, Ariz., and Sandy, Brian and Jill Lockwood, all of Mason City; along with a host of friends and former students. His parents and Sulie Lockwood, raised in the family as a sister, preceded him in death.

Fullerton Funeral Home and Cremation Services