John C. Dyer, 87, longtime resident of Wayland, MA and South Dennis, MA peacefully passed away on August 7, 2021 at his cherished summer home on Swan Pond in South Dennis.

He was born in 1933 in Cambridge, MA, the son of the late Charles J. Dyer and Margaret M. (Cardoos) Dyer, growing up in Watertown, MA.

“Johnny” graduated from Watertown High School at the age of 16 and went on to study chemistry at Boston University (Class of 1954) where he was in the U.S. Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC). Following graduation from BU, he entered the Air Force as a newly minted 2nd Lieutenant in time to be considered a Korean War veteran. He served three years on active duty stationed at Ellington AFB in Houston, TX and Otis AFB in Falmouth, MA, and 8 years in the USAF Reserve as a Senior Navigator, accumulating over 3,000 flying hours and attaining the rank of Captain. Proudly serving during the Cold War he flew radar/sentry coastal flights in a Lockheed Super-Constellation RC121-D to monitor Soviet flights along the Atlantic coast and flew frequent routes to Greenland, Mexico, Bermuda and Europe. John received his Masters of Science in Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology/Sloan School of Management and enjoyed a 40-year career in the high tech, electronic and aerospace industries working for AVCO, Textron and MITRE in the fields of business development, strategic planning and management. Among many interesting and important aerospace and defense programs during his career, he worked on the interplanetary exploration design studies for the Voyager Mission in 1963 completed by Avco Research and Advanced Development Division for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

He enjoyed travel and time spent with his family and cousins, fine dining and cooking (especially Syrian food), walking in the great outdoors, photography, gardening, fishing on the Cape with his sons, letter writing, public service, and was an avid doubles tennis player. But above all, family came first.

Among many community volunteer and elected positions over the decades he served as Chairman of the Wayland Planning Board, Chair of the Wayland Veterans Memorial Committee, served on the Wayland Historical Commission, the Wayland 375th Anniversary Committee, and on the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC), the regional planning agency serving the people who live and work in the 101 cities and towns of Metropolitan Boston. As Chair of the Wayland Planning Board, John was able to have a then controversial By-Law adopted that enabled Multi-Unit Dwellings to exist in a previously zoned area for single dwellings and increased open space and conservation land by 35%. In 2019, the Massachusetts State Senate and Massachusetts House of Representatives specially recognized John for his dedication, service and 50 years of invaluable contributions to civic life in the Town of Wayland.

He is survived by his beloved wife Patricia Dyer, his loving sons, Charles Dyer and his wife MaryBeth Dyer of Hamilton, MA, Andrew R. Dyer and his wife Stephanie Dyer of Newton, MA, his grandsons John, Graham, Evan, and Brandon, his granddaughter Jessica, and his sister Charlotte (Dyer) Tragakis and husband Col.(Ret.) Chris Tragakis of Springfield, VA, and his sister-in-law Sally Wright of Charlottesville, VA, and was predeceased by his late sister Mary M. Dyer of Watertown, MA, his late sister-in-law Peggy Crocker and her husband Hilary Crocker of Wayland, MA. He was the cherished uncle of nieces and nephews, Steven Crocker, Barbara Conner, Lisa Crocker, Jim Tragakis, and Chad Tragakis, and grand nieces and grand nephews, Maggie, Nick, CJ, Katrina, Billy, Michael, Chip and Katie.

The family would like to thank the medical teams of Frenesius Kidney Care of Yarmouth and Frenesius Kidney Care of Framingham, for their excellent care while he was their dialysis patient. The family would also like to thank the fantastic caregivers of Cherry’s Senior Care Services of Hyannis—Taneil, Stacey, Byron, Oneicka, Jennele, Raenia, Shanelle, and Natoya, for their dedication and compassionate assistance caring for John, enabling him to spend his last summer on the Cape.

Burial will be private at the Massachusetts National Cemetery and a celebration of life memorial service will be held at a later date.

As an expression of sympathy, memorial donations may be made to St. John of Damascus Church, https://www.stjohnd.org, 300 West Street, Dedham, MA 02026, The American Kidney Fund, https://www.kidneyfund.org, 11921 Rockville Pike, Suite 300, Rockville, MD 20852, or either Boston University or Massachusetts Institute of Technology in his memory.