John Wolcott, aged 82 and a 46-year resident of Darien, Connecticut, passed away on July 13, 2026 surrounded by his loving family.
Born in Berkeley, California, the son of Oliver Dwight Wolcott and Valborg Kjeldsen Rasmussen, John is survived by his loving wife and best friend, Jane, their two daughters, Kristine Braden and Dana Grunow, Dana’s husband, Benjamin and their son, Charlie and daughter, Whitney, and Kristine’s husband Glen and their two children, Tully and Hannah and last, but not least, a marvelous huge Maine Coon, Tabitha, named for Jane’s great-great-etc., grandmother who dwelt down east in Maine a century or two ago.
After being pulled from pillar to post while growing up in 23 houses including Peru and Trinidad, John kited back and forth between Cal Davis and Cal Berkeley chasing his interests (which might not have included academics), graduated, then served three years in the Army Transportation Corps, first in Virginia (the agony of Engineer OCS), then Colorado (the ecstasy of snow-Vail was just up the road from Fort Carson) and finally the Central Highlands of Vietnam (no snow, but at 2,500 feet, it did freeze!), during which he was awarded the Bronze Star. Leaving the Service as a Captain. John finally got serious, returned to school and earned an MBA in 1973 at Cal Berkeley, again, where for several years he moonlighted as a lecturer introducing incoming MBA students to the marvels of beancounting.
As a newly minted CPA, John joined Price Waterhouse in San Francisco, then transferred to their National Office in New York for a tour of duty, during which the family, having discovered that Darien was a wonderful place to raise children, made a rewarding decision to permanently relocate there. Later in his career, John took on various iterations of CFO for several private wealth management firms featuring extensive international travel. When asked what he did for a living all those years, John would reply, “Colleagues made the money; my job was to make sure we kept it.”
Sitting on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on their first blind date, John fell head over heels in love with drop-dead gorgeous Jane at first sight. Happily, it only took Jane a little longer before she arrived at the same conclusion and they married the following spring-after only 19 days face to face! Over 54 years of marriage, John and Jane’s greatest joys in life (aside from each other) were their two spectacular daughters, complemented by their own growing families. John and Jane loved to travel together, trekking off to destinations ranging from the usual capitals to exotic outposts in obscure corners of the world, a wanderlust they are highly gratified to have imparted to their children.
John played so-so tennis and attempted golf until compelled to preserve the last shreds of his dignity. He would not have gone to Vietnam except that he failed to break a leg crashing down Vail’s Riva Ridge every weekend just before they closed the chair, a small consolation being that, despite himself, he was able to bash his way down double-blacks. He did board that plane along with fellow OCS graduates and all five were thankfully seated together again returning to the “world” to resume life exactly 364 days, 23 hours later. Back in the USA, John continued to ski, taking Jane and the girls to Snowmass every winter, particularly loving that precious 20 minutes on the Summit chairlift when he got to chat one-on-one with their daughters. They were always happy to ride up with Da (the girls had decided the second “d” was redundant) because he would lend them his toasty gloves to warm their freezing fingers. Once the kids were in college, Jane announced that it was time to trade the Rockies for warm white sandy beaches. John, who would follow Jane anywhere, acquiesced and Hawaii interspersed with Nantucket became frequent destinations.
Musically, John played accordion until begged to stop, and gamely practiced Czerny and Chopin until he arrived downstairs one morning to discover that his parents hated Czerny even more than he did and had sold the piano, after which he transitioned to the Hammond organ, where his teacher told him he might actually become good enough to run a piano bar someday. Finally, inspired by Deliverance, John was able to pick his way on his 5-string through Dueling Banjos-well, the opening riffs, at least.
Living in Darien, John served on the boards of the Middlesex and Darien Country Clubs as treasurer and served in a variety of roles with the Darien Men’s Association from secretary to president, where he enjoyed speaking before the membership weekly revealing the unreported ironies of what really happened “On this Day in History” of History Channel fame. As a final civic effort, John was also elected to serve on Darien’s Board of Finance. In recognition for his service to the military and the Community, John was named the Grand Marshal for Darien’s 2022 Memorial Day parade. Traveling out to camp at the “Grove” north of San Francisco every summer, John was also a long-time member of the Bohemian Club of San Francisco.
John would like to hope he would be remembered for the quip, “Only stubborn when right.” However, most might find a more fitting epitaph to be, “Often wrong, never uncertain.”
