John B Mandle
John died peacefully after 98 years of a happy and productive life. John moved his family to Los Altos in 1964 for a job at Ampex in electrical engineering. He picked Los Altos because he said it had the best climate. Throughout his life, John enjoyed being involved in his community by volunteering for many community projects, from maintaining the city council video telecast system, starting a computer recycling program, and building the town’s first history archive system. He was well known for developing databases that organized large amounts of data, making them accessible to anyone who wanted to research the history of Los Altos. Notable accomplishments were his help in establishing the History House and his time working with the Los Altos Community Foundation. In addition, after retiring from a successful career, John created a ‘handyman’ network for senior citizens to call on for help with anything from computer repairs to changing a light bulb which continues to this day. For these contributions of his time and services, he was awarded the 2000 California State Senate Certificate of Recognition, the 2000 Community Service Award from the Silicon Valley Realtor Association, and the 1995 Volunteer Award from the towns of Los Altos and Los Altos Hills.
John was dedicated to his family. Whether being a Boy Scout Leader with his boys, taking his family on road trips, or spending time with his grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
In 2000, John and his wife, Sally, moved to a Santa Barbara retirement community. The volunteering continued with John working at the Historical Museum on their archive database and many projects at the retirement community. He was recognized for outstanding work, including creating and maintaining a historical archive for the retirement community and the WENO television station that served the residents.
John was preceded in death by his wife of 67 years, Sally. He leaves a lasting legacy of good humor and good work ethic to his two sons, Gary (Kathy) and Richard (Peggy), along with 2 granddaughters, Aimee (Rich) and Terri (Scott), and 5 great-grandchildren, Tatum, Landon, Kanon, Rocco, and Gianna.
