John Irvin Legé

May 14, 1925 - March 18, 2015

Longtime Napa, California resident John Irvin Legé passed away peacefully on March 18 at the age of 89.
John grew up in Abbeville, Louisiana, being raised by his extended family after his mom died when he was five months old.
He left to join the U.S. Navy at age 17 and served on submarines in the Pacific during WWII and the Korean War. It was while stationed in Honolulu, Hawaii that he met his future wife Evelyn Perry. They married in 1946 and lived in Hawaii and Northern California before settling in Napa in 1953.
John was a member of one of the founding families of the St. Apollinaris parish in 1957. He and his wife Evelyn played a significant role in helping both the church and school get started. John taught all the original Irish nuns how to drive a car and was always available when the nuns needed a leaky roof patched or a screen repaired.
John worked at Mare Island Naval Shipyard from 1952 until his retirement in 1980. He advanced in standing as a Technical Engineer and eventually served as the lead project engineer for the overhaul of the nuclear submarines which came to the shipyard for upgrades and repairs. After his retirement, John worked as a consultant for Sperry-Rand for another 11 years.
John was very active throughout his life. In addition to holding a variety of second jobs to help meet the financial needs of his family, he also enjoyed camping, hunting and doing home and car repairs.
Both John and Evelyn loved to travel, including to France and other portions of Europe, Japan, Nova Scotia, Madera and throughout the United States. They spent a significant amount of time during their travels doing genealogy research. As a result, his family is officially recognized as an Acadian diaspora family. They were also the driving force in forming the Richelieu Leger Family Association.
John was preceded in death by Evelyn, his wife of 60 year, who died in 2005. He is survived by his four sons: Steve and Nancy of Davis, Jerry and Sousan of Palm Springs, John and Barbara of Napa and Mike of Phoenix; four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
A memorial mass will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, March 21, at St. Apollinaris Catholic Church, 3700 Lassen St., Napa, California.