John Andres

John J. Andres, 98, of Butler passed away at 12:02 a.m. Thursday in the Good Samaritan Hospice Unit at Concordia.

He was born June 27, 1913, in Butler, to the late John Andres and Mary Bobak Andres.

As a very young man, he worked at area coal mines and hauled coal in his own dump truck in the 1940s and 1950s. He was employed at Steel Drum in East Butler before working at Armco, now AK Steel, from 1942 to 1976 where he retired from the stainless shipping department.

He built his own home, where he lived for 70 years, and built or remodeled numerous homes in the area as rental properties. As an avid deer hunter, he was extremely proud of the 14-point buck he shot in Butler County. Using his imagination to recycle items into new, creative and useful objects, he rarely threw anything away. In his 80s and 90s, his passion was spending hours on end dismantling unwanted metal items, recycling them and donating all the proceeds earned from the scrap to the Penn Christian Academy in Butler.

He was a member of the Slovak Church of God in Lyndora until it joined the Butler Church of God in the mid-1930s. This church went on to become the North Main Street Church of God, where he remained a faithful and tithing member all his life. He was a church usher and member of the Keenagers Sunday school class. He loved listening to music by Bill Gaither and other gospel singers. For as long as he was physically able, he also loved attending his church several times a week.

The joy of hard work brought it own satisfaction, and he thrived on always keeping busy and mowed his own grass until he was 97 years old. Work was his hobby and work was his life. He lived at Concordia Lutheran Ministries in Cabot from August 2010 until his passing.

Mr. Andres is survived by one son, Kenneth L. Andres and his wife, Lynn, of Butler; one daughter, Rose Marie Hancock of Fredericksburg, Va.; three stepdaughters, Donna Slamon and her husband, Dennis, of Woodland Hills, Calif., M. Kay Warheit and her husband, Matthew, and Jymie Kelly and her husband, Richard, both of Butler; grandchildren, Laura Gray and her husband, Gregory, of Norfolk, Va., Michael Andres and his wife, Michelle, of Butler and David Andres and his wife, Donna, of Olathe, Kan.; stepgrandchildren, Joey and Matthew Slamon of California, A. Goeff and Kris Warheit of Butler, Richard and Erin Kelly of Butler, Fred and David Hancock of Florida, Kathy Vinson of Florida, Thomas Hancock of Louisiana and Terry Hancock of Virginia; several great-grandchildren; three brothers, Paul Andres of Butler, Ben Andres and his wife, Sara, of Elyria, Ohio, and Edward Andres of Michigan; one sister, Martha Heichel of Elyria; and numerous nieces, nephews, and stepfamily members.

In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by his first wife, Catherine Andres, who he married Oct. 9, 1937, and who passed away July 18, 1976; his second wife, Gladys Andres, who he married June 5, 1977, and who passed away Sept. 18, 2010; two brothers, Michael and Joseph Andres; and four sisters, Mary Bechek, Ann Bohun, Sue Martenson and Bess Fair.

<B>ANDRES — </B>Friends of John J. Andres, who died April 5, 2012, will be received at <B>Thompson-Miller Funeral Home</B>, 124 E. North St., Butler, from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. Tuesday. Funeral services will be at 11 a.m. Wednesday at the funeral home with Pastor David Brown of North Main Street Church of God officiating. Burial will be in Greenlawn Burial Estates.In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to the Penn Christian Academy, 199 W. Airport Road, Butler, PA 16002.Information and a private guest book are available at www.thompson-miller.com.