John Bibb Obituary

John Sale Bibb, Jr. (Jack as he was known to all) died peacefully surrounded by family on June 12, 2025. Jack took his final breaths while listening to his children sing (poorly) along to a recording of Jack & his buddies playing "Oh Lord It's Hard to be Humble." The next song in the set, the "Sloop John B.", had him calling for the Captain ashore to let him go home. He is survived by his children, Karen Bibb (Carl Rogers) and Jay Bibb (Barry Vial); his grandchildren Josh and Katie; and his brothers-in-law Henry Riley (Margaret) and Dave Riley.
Jack was born in Richmond, VA on September 28, 1942 to parents John Sale Bibb, Sr. and Virginia Lilliott Huff Bibb. The family lived across Virginia, in Bedford, Ashland, Virginia Beach, and Richmond as Jack grew up. While living in Virginia Beach, John and Jack worked weekends to build a cottage near Jamaica, VA, "the Rivah". In the summer of 1963, while attending Virginia Tech, he met his soon-to-be wife Marty at the Rivah where they have spent so many of their summers. Jack and Marty were married in 1965.
After graduating Virginia Tech, Jack served in the Army. Marty and Jack started their family with the birth of daughter Karen and then Jack took a job in Maryland. After a particularly cold winter and a February work trip to warm Cape Canaveral, the family moved to Florida where he started his long career as an engineer at Radiation Corporation (now L3 Harris Corp) and grew their family with the birth of their son John, III - Jay. Jack worked in the heyday of the space program designing components for satellite antennas and communication systems, receiving several patents along the way. His final project at Harris Corp was building a communications system that controlled the braking for multi-engine, very long trains moving through varying terrain.
Jack always had something going on outside of work - sailing, music, woodworking, biking, model trains, reading. Jack and Marty became active in the Melbourne Yacht Club in the '70s, sailing and racing a Day Sailor. They moved up to a Cal-27, Majjak, in 1980 and even sailed it to the Bahamas in 1983 and 1985. In 1986 they bought a Cal-33 sailboat and cruised it from Florida to the Bahamas and up to the Rivah in Virginia. Jack was a strong supporter of the local sailboat racing organizations, developing a training program for how to run sailing regattas and maintaining boats for MYC youth sailing program. Their social life with MYC was rich with friends, parties, raft-ups, regattas, and most especially Friday night pickin' and grinning. Their friends from MYC have been their Florida family for over 50 years.
As a father, Jack was an amazing mentor. He recognized the love of math in both of his children and spent time showing them the ins and outs of design, geometry and navigation. He inspired both of them to enter college in pursuit of engineering degrees. Jack taught his kids how to sail, instilling in both the love of sailboat racing and cruising. His grandkids grew up enjoying retired Pop-Pop's undivided attention during their summers at the Rivah. They sailed Sunfish, swam at the Point, tubed, worked model train layouts, took tractor rides, read stories, and even built a wooden boat.
In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation in Jack's name to either MYC's youth sailing program (spacecoastsailing.org) or your local foodbank (Jack regularly gave to Second Harvest, https://www.feedhopenow.org/).