John Walker Mauer

John Walker Mauer was born in 1945 in Houston, Texas, son of the late Elizabeth Petzel Mauer and John Alton Mauer.  Both of his parents were public school teachers in the Houston area.  John went to the University of Texas, planning to major in geology because of his love of fossils. To be closer to his family he transferred to Texas Tech his sophomore year of college and switched his major to history.  He lost both of his parents before he graduated from college.
John was able to complete one year towards his masters degree in history at Texas Tech before the draft caught up with him.  Rather than be drafted, he enlisted in the army for three years in order to be able to choose his training.  After basic training he went to the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, CA, where he studied Russian, believing he wanted to be a Russian historian.  After completing his training, he was assigned to the 528th Military Intelligence Company at Fort Meade, MD, where he worked as a librarian for the rest of his time in the army.  After his discharge he returned to Texas Tech where he completed his masters in history in 1973.  John then went on to Rice where he earned a PhD in American Constitutional history in 1983 working under Harold Hyman.
His first job after getting his PhD was to coauthor a five volume chronology of the Space Shuttle, and through research for that project he met Pam Mack.  After he completed the project he moved to Clemson in 1986, where his fiancée had taken a job at Clemson University.  John and Pam were married May 16, 1987 in Ringoes, NJ.  In 1989 he was hired to teach history at Tri-County Technical College, where he worked until he was forced to retire on disability in 2008.  He dedicated himself to making a difference in his student’s lives.
To his great joy he was blessed with a son Paul in 1990 and a daughter Elizabeth in 1993. His passions were liberal politics, fine wine, and movies and he enjoyed sharing his knowledge of all three.  John was diagnosed with atypical Parkinson’s in 2008 and strove to make the most of his life as the disease progressed.  He died peacefully in his sleep on February 20, 2016 at the age of 70.  He is survived by his wife Pam Mack, his children Paul and Elizabeth Mauer, his aunt Florence Petzel, his brother William Mauer, and many nieces and nephews.
A memorial service will be held Saturday Feb. 27 at 10 am at Peace Congregational Church, 226 Pendleton Road, Clemson SC 29631.  A reception will follow at the church; internment will be later in Massachusetts.  In lieu of flower he requested donations to South Carolina Public Radio or Peace Congregational Church, UCC.

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