John Anthony Pence born July 9, 1948, Canton, OH died unexpectedly at the age of 77 on Dec 6, 2025. A widower of almost 10, he was married to Carolyn May Miller Pence, Lewistown, IL for 47 years. He is survived by 4 children – Adrienne Pence Kuhar, Anthony Pence (Becky Butner), Joshua Xavier (Linda Murray Xavier), and James Pence (Meghan Tackett) – 12 grandkids, and 3 great-grand daughters. Frances Ballard, 87 of Lakeland, Florida is a surviving aunt.

An opportunity with Western Union (Ft. Detrick) brought the young family from Alexandria, VA to Frederick, MD in 1971. He worked as a computer programmer for almost 3 decades. Having moved 17 times as a child, 3 of them during his senior of high-school, John happily settled in Frederick for 54 years. Aside from traveling to Florida or Ohio to visit family, majority of his time was spent on the western side of Frederick. His favorite places to visit were China Garden, Pizza Villa, Time Out, and the Fun Factory.

As a true introverted, computer nerd, his family had a home computer by 1979, before they became common. From his encouragement, his kids excelled at math and logic problems through educational games like Math Decathlon. Other activities he enjoyed were teaching his kids to swim, canoeing, gardening for a season, and playing board games (Risk) and cards (Euker). The neighborhood kids were included when we played a version of hide and seek with a BB gun during dark summer nights or played 500 when his daughter was interested in softball.

During most of early years, John worked nights, so he was not as present as he wanted to be. After his wife passed away in 2016, John found himself living on his own for the first time. Over the last 10 years, he transformed into a loving, generous father and grandfather and got to know his family. He will be remembered as being present for birthdays and holidays, and many random days in between. During weekend meetups for takeout and movies, he enjoyed having company. Known for loving sci-fi, Star Trek in particular, and horror movies, many of his grandkids found they had similar interests.

Reviewing his final days through his phone activity, we found that he was saving various photos posted in Facebook to keep as mementos. After celebrating Thanksgiving, he was looking forward to Christmas. His passing was truly unexpected thinking he still had several years with us. He will be forever in our hearts and his memories carried on by his family. Finally, since he enjoyed texting, he loved emojis.

We will miss you Dad, Love Your Family. 💝🤸‍♂️😇

As dad would say, "Bye for now. Try and have some fun today."

Informal Celebrations of Life will be held Sunday and Monday afternoons. Please reach out to one of us for more information.