John William Blom

John William Blom, 84, of Boise, Idaho went to his eternal home on Sunday, January 19, 2020.

John was born August 13, 1935 on a farm outside Leota, Minnesota to John and Minnie Blom.  John met the love of his life Virginia Mulder in high school.  He dropped out of school when he was 17 and followed Virginia when her family moved to California. 

Even though he looked like he was 15, he was a hard worker and landed a job in a chrome plating facility, where he quickly became foreman. He soon completed his GED through night school while holding a full-time job.  

John & Virginia were married in Lakewood, California on March 25, 1955. After a work-related accident, John’s father in law thought it best he find a new line of work and offered to teach him watch and clock repair. 1957 was an eventful year as he bought the Jewelry shop from his father-in-law, and the first Blom child, Steve, was born. Daughter, Lori was born in 1960.

In 1962, John closed the jewelry and watch repair shop and changed careers to become an instrument technician at North American Rockwell, building parts for guidance systems; possibly even the guidance system for the Apollo mission putting the first man on the moon 

 John built upon his electronic experience by moving on to West Bond after mass layoffs at North American Rockwell, working 12 years building bonding machines for the semi-conductor industry.  During that time, Juli was born in 1966 and John in 1968.

John was always a farm boy at heart and moved his family to Jerome, Idaho in 1973 to pursue his dream of having his own dairy.  As with many dreams, John had to wait, so he provided for his family by working at Amalgamated Sugar and then by repairing watches from home for several jewelry stores.  In 1979 he finally realizes his dream of milking cows and continued his dairy operation for five years. 

When the time for milking cows had come to end, John and Virginia returned to California in 1985 to once again work for West Bond.  He was promoted in 1989 to manage a new electronic division called KSine Ultrasonic for the next 12 years.  In 1998 he and Virginia moved back to Idaho to begin retirement.

John truly enjoyed retirement and filled his time with woodworking projects, watch and clock repair and Bible Study Fellowship.

John loved the Lord first and his family second.

John is survived by his wife Virginia, four children Steve Blom (Bonnie); Lori Mogensen (Bill); Juli Vanden Bosch (Doug); John Blom (Raquel); 20 grandchildren and their spouses; and 18 great grandchildren. John was preceded in death by his parents, four sisters and a granddaughter.

A Celebration of Life will be held Saturday, January 25, 2020, 3:00 pm at Faith Community Bible Church, 9950 W Ustick Rd., Boise, ID

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