John M. Wetherhold was born on June 13th, 1944 in Yakima, WA to Mr. John M. Wetherhold Sr. and Mrs. Mildred Sherley. He graduated valedictorian of Penns Grove Regional High School in 1962 and received his bachelor’s degree, Phi Beta Kappa summa cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania in 1966. He attended Harvard Law School and received his MBA from the Wharton School of Finance in 1969, where he was a Joseph Wharton Fellow.

John began his nearly 50 year career in finance at Dean Witter and Brown Brothers Harriman, and would bring his expertise to Albania, Bosnia, Bulgaria, China, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, The Maldives, The Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan, among other places around the world. He held the CFA designation and was also a grader.

An avid and voracious reader, John also loved swimming, traveling, cigars, and Diet Coke with lemon, as well as fine American delicacies like scrapple and chicken fried steak. He especially enjoyed honky-tonk, bluegrass, and rock’n’roll music, and was known to indulge in international cinema, absurdist comedies, and science fiction films. He spoke German, read Latin, and was known to converse with his family in Mandarin.

John was active in a number of historical and environmental conservation and social advocacy efforts in New York City and abroad. He loved dining out and supporting local businesses— he was especially known for circulating two-dollar bills.

John married his wife Linda in 1990, and they lived together in Greenwich Village for 33 years. He is additionally survived by his daughter Sherley, sister Anne and her husband Tom, brother Robert and his wife Elena, as well as cousins, nieces, nephews, and friends around the world.

John passed away at midnight on May 2nd, 2024 at home in New York, following a spirited fight against lung cancer. Inspired, inquisitive, and independent, he will be remembered as a magnanimous man of adventure and caprice in a class of his own, eternally loved and deeply missed.

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