John was born in 1948 & raised on a six-generation farm in east-central Illinois. He graduated with honors from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology with a BS is Chemical Engineering & a minor in economics in 1970. The next five years were spent as a Nuclear Engineering Officer aboard the USS Seahorse, a fast attack submarine homeported in Charleston, SC. He returned to the 600 acre family farm in 1975. The farm now comprises 1300 acres in Illinois.