John was born on August 9, 1929, in McCleary, Washington, to Einar A. and Jane (Little) Sandberg. He died in a hospital near his home in Viera, Fla. on October 24, 2012. He was 83.
He started school at the two-room Shafer’s Prairie School near the Shafer Game Farm. A 1947 graduate of Lake Quinault High School he went to Washington State College where he received his D. Ed. Degree in 1956. In 1976, he was recognized by the University of Guam, which he had helped to establish, for educational and sociological work he had done for the people of the Central Pacific. His educational career ended as the Dean of the School of Education at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo.