John P. McGough, 79, dedicated lecturer on the Holocaust
He was angry that he had not been taught earlier about the slaughter.
JOHN McGOUGH was confused, and not a little bit angry.
He was a loyal Irish Catholic; he had been in a seminary; he had been in the Army.
Why hadn't he been hearing about the Holocaust? How come nobody he had known was talking about what he had come to see as the greatest human horror story of all time?
Nazi Germany had methodically exterminated 6 million Jews in the greatest genocide of the 20th century.
John set out to find out all he could about this horror story, and wound up devoted to spreading the word, through teaching, lecturing, writing. It became his all-encompassing mission.
John P. McGough, who was an executive of companies that dealt with Israel, an instructor at the University of Delaware and the Academy of Lifelong Learning, a former seminarian and an Army veteran, died Nov. 4 of cancer. He was 79 and lived in Wallingford, Delaware County.
"He was just one of the most interesting and insightful and truly brilliant people I ever met," said Regina Kerr Alonzo, former chairwoman of the Halina Wind Preston Holocaust Education Committee.
"He was adamant about the church's role in perpetuating the horrors of the Holocaust."
"He was so moved by stories about the Holocaust that his world was simply turned upside down," said his daughter, Mary G. Kissick. "He had an idealistic view of his mission in the world."
"He read everything about the Holocaust and World War II that he could get his hands on," said Ann Jaffe, a Holocaust survivor who tells students and others her story of hiding out from the Nazis in Eastern Poland and spending months hiding in a Polish forest before being liberated by the Russian Red Army.
She often spoke in classes led by Jack McGough.
"He was incensed that he had not been taught about it before," said Lucile Mansfield, his longtime companion. "He decided to take that on. He read everything about it that he could get his hands on for the rest of his life."
Jack, as he was called by family and friends, made at least 20 trips to Israel, and visited the concentration camps of Auschwitz, Dachau and Bergen-Belsen, to get a firsthand look at the Nazi slaughterhouses.
"He made himself an expert on World War II," his daughter said. "He had friends in Delaware who were Holocaust survivors and he was so moved by their stories that he had to teach and lecture about it."
John McGough (pronounced mik-GUFF) was born in Pittsburgh to Patrick J. McGough and the former Adelean Skillen. He graduated from Central Catholic High School there and entered the Benedictine Monastery at St. Vincent Archabbey in Latrobe, Pa.
He left before taking his final vows, and was drafted into the Army. After his discharge, he attended DePaul University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in philosophy. He received a master's degree in psychology from Montclair University, and did graduate work at the New School of Social Research in New York City.
Jack joined Volta Carmiel Limited, an American affiliate of an Israeli company manufacturing plastic products, and rose to be its president. He also became president of J.E. Rhoads and Sons, of Wilmington, Del., a leather-manufacturing company dating to 1699.
At the University of Delaware and the Academy of Lifelong Learning, Jack taught courses in sociology of religion, human sexuality, anti-Semitism and the Holocaust.
Jack was an active member and supporter of the Halina Wind Preston Holocaust Education Committee.
Besides his daughter, he is survived by three sons, Paul, Daniel and Timothy, and one granddaughter.
Services: Were Sunday.
Donations in his memory may be made to the Halina Wind Preston Holocaust Education Committee, 100 Garden of Eden Road, Wilmington, Del., 19803.