John Chester Stiteler, of Hollidaysburg, passed away at Presbyterian UPMC Hospital in Pittsburgh during the wee hours of Wednesday, April 15, 2026, after a long struggle with malignant prostate cancer and complications of a traumatic brain injury after a fall.

Although John was born in a hospital in Johnstown, he lived his entire life of 92 years in the Altoona and Hollidaysburg areas. John was the son of John Chester Stiteler Sr. and Hazel May (Calderwood) Stiteler, part of a long line of Stitelers that first emigrated from Germany to Philadelphia, in 1755. In fact, John is the sixth generation Stiteler that has lived in Pennsylvania and what would become the United States.

John’s father, John Chester Stiteler Sr., who was born in 1878, lived first in Sinking Valley and ultimately moved into Altoona where he worked for the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) for 50 years until his retirement and early death in 1954. The Stitelers were living in Blair County from about 1826. John’s mother, Hazel May (Calderwood) Stiteler, who was born into the Calderwood family in Tyrone, first married Roy Holmes Thompson, a lawyer in Tyrone. They had one child, James Wendell Thompson, born in 1921, prior to the untimely death of his father due to complications of appendicitis in 1922. Hazel then moved to Altoona, where she met John Chester Stiteler Sr., and the couple had two children, John Chester Stiteler Jr. (John), who was born in 1933; and his sister, Shirley Joan (Tompkins) Stiteler, who was born in 1928. Both John and Joan attended Altoona schools and both graduated from Altoona High School: Joan in 1946 and John in 1951.

John and his wife-to-be, Dorothy (Dot) Elizabeth Leighty, were both working at Butterick patterns manufacturing company in Altoona when they met and soon married in 1952. John then became an apprentice for the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) and worked there during the period of the birth of their first four children: John Milton Stiteler, Feb. 20, 1953; Mark Alan Stiteler, Feb. 16, 1955; Susan Elaine (Stiteler) Clark, March 25, 1956; and Robin Kim (Stiteler) Passmore, Aug. 6, 1957.

In 1959, John was hired into the SKF USA Inc. bearing plant in Logan Township where he worked first as a machinist and later as a tool and die maker, until his retirement in 1995. Also in 1959, John and Dot bought a house in the Gospel Hill neighborhood, where their fifth child, Gregg Alan Stiteler, was born in 1964. During those years, John became an assistant Boy Scout Master for Troop 1, which met at First Methodist Church at 12th Avenue and 13th Street. John worked with Scout leader Bob Stitt about 10 years, assisting the troop in a large variety of scouting events and adventures, which often involved John with his vast array of mechanical and carpentry skills constructing sets of various items used by Troop 1 over many years, including backpack frames, toboggans to tow supplies and a trailer to haul scouting equipment from site to site. Winter camping at the Blair-Bedford scouting reservation north of Bellwood was an annual challenge and experience in rustic living. Sons, John and Mark, their cousin, Joe McCreery (brother, Michael) and Dot’s sister, Barbara (Leighty) McCreery, spent time in scouting with their dad and Troop 1. All five of the Stiteler children graduated from Altoona Area High School: John in 1971; Mark in 1973; Susan in 1974; Robin in 1975; and Gregg in 1982.

Three of the Stiteler children received Bachelor of Science degrees from Penn State: Mark in 1977; John (under the G.I. Bill) in 1979; and Robin, who received her Registered Nursing degree in 1995. Susan received her B.S. in Nursing (BSN) at Eastern Mennonite University (EMU) in Harrisonburg, Va. Gregg attended Penn State, but being a man of tremendous vocational talents like his father, became the housing maintenance supervisor at the Altoona Housing Authority.

As stated above, John was very talented in all of the vocational skills as well as an intelligent thinker and inventor. In the early 1980s, John realized an opportunity to move from downtown Altoona into the suburban countryside in Scotch Valley outside Hollidaysburg. One of the farm properties had been purchased and parceled into one-acre lots for purchase at what seemed to be an affordable amount. John bought early into that development and obtained a corner lot. John then drew up a design for the building of a one-level rambler with attached two-car garage. John along with his sons, Gregg and John, (during working weekends up from the Washington D.C. area), as well as son-in-law, Kevin Clark, and others on occasion, constructed the Scotch Valley house over a period of about three years. During that time, the perspective of John and Dot and the entire Stiteler family transitioned from downtown to suburban.

All his life, John was a good storyteller. When John was a young boy, he would travel as a passenger on the Pennsylvania Railroad with his mother, Hazel, and on occasion, his father, John Chester Stiteler Sr., to such locations as New York City and Coney Island. John, being an avid storyteller, would recite these special memories of his early experiences in the big cityscapes and train travels on steam locomotive pulled passenger cars from Altoona to New York City. There seemed to be very few days when John, throughout his long life, would not tell those stories as well as those he gained as an apprentice with the Pennsylvania Railroad and from all the interesting men he worked with over his long career with SKF. John’s stories would be replicated exactly from one time to the next until it could be anticipated what would come next in each story. The stories also brought to life a time in Altoona during World War II, and before the changes from a focus on 11th Avenue downtown to a shift toward expansion into Logan Township and beyond. It was one of John’s endeavoring qualities that caused all of his family to love Papa John.

John and Dot are the head of a very large complex and loving family, which has been referred to as the JCS Clan. Four of the five children have provided 11 grandchildren, and eight of those grandchildren have provided 16 great-grandchildren. One of them, McKenzie (Wills) Groome, and her husband, Ryan Groome, have provided three great-great-grandchildren. All the members of the JCS Clan continue to survive and thrive, mainly in the Altoona area, elsewhere in Pennsylvania and in Virginia. Son, Mark, has lived most of his life in Columbia, S.C. All seem to be doing well, are healthy, educated and productive. Each of those children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren have complex and interesting biographies of their own which are too lengthy to describe here.

Family and friends of John Chester Stiteler will be received from 10 a.m. until noon on Thursday, April 23, 2026, at The Good Funeral Home Inc., 108 Alto-Reste Park, Altoona, where a funeral service will be held immediately following the visitation at noon. John will be interred at Alto-Reste Park, Altoona.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorial contributions be made to Girl’s Night Out Altoona Inc., 1798 Plank Road, Suite 303, Duncansville, PA 16635. Girl’s Night Out supports cancer patients in the Altoona area.

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