John Edward Wilhelm

Mr. John Edward Wilhelm, 96, passed away Wednesday, April 12, 2023, at Morningside Assisted Living in Concord.

A funeral service is scheduled for 3:00 pm Sunday, April 16, 2023, at Lady's Funeral Home Chapel. Rev. Gene Edwards will officiate. Interment with military honors will follow at Carolina Memorial Park in Kannapolis.

The family will receive friends from 2 to 2:45 pm Sunday at Lady's Funeral Home.

Mr. Wilhelm was born February 11, 1927 in Salisbury. He was the sole surviving son of the late Willie Ila Ennis Wilhelm and Thomas Alexander Wilhelm. In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by his wife of 72 years, Selma Starnes Wilhelm and eleven siblings.

He is survived by six children: Ronald Edward (Kathia) Wilhelm, Jerry Allen (Sally) Wilhelm, Vickie Lynn Wilhelm, John Thomas (Jane) Wilhelm, Robin Wilhelm Lyon and William Jeffrey Wilhelm.

He was a member of the Allen Graham Masonic Lodge 695, the Shriners' Oasis Temple and the Scottish Rite of Charlotte.

John joined the United States Navy when he was sixteen years old because he wanted to see the world. He served as a gunner's mate on the flagship USS Eldorado in the Pacific Theatre of World War II. To signify the end of the epic Battle of Iwo Jima, US Marines serving on the Eldorado planted the US Flag on Japanese soil, celebrating a major Allied victory. This historic moment is captured in sculpture in Washington, D.C. Seventy years later, John returned to the Pacific and Iwo Jima as part of the Stars and Stripes Honor Flight Program.

John was a plumber by trade in the earlier years of his life before he began installing fire protection systems. He eventually started his own company and installed fire protection systems on military bases for the US government, in naval gun factories, in atomic energy plants and at the Pentagon. He continued to work well into his 80's inspecting automated fire systems with his company Kannapolis Automatic Sprinkler Inspection Services.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be sent to Hospice & Palliative Care of Cabarrus County, 5003 Hospice Lane, Kannapolis, NC 28081 or to Jackson Park United Methodist Church, 715 Mable Avenue, Kannapolis, NC 28083.