John Kevin McGinley
John Kevin McGinley
They say everyone’s life is made up of two dates and a dash. The first date tells of when you entered this world and the second of when you left it behind. The real story, though, lies within the dash.
On Feb. 17, 1964, John Kevin McGinley was born in Charleston, WV, to the late Charles “Skip” and Willa (Coast) McGinley. He was their fourth and final child, joining his sister, Suzy, and brothers, Pat (deceased) and Bill.
If home is where your heart is, then Ripley is where he belonged. He grew up on 3rd Avenue, where he formed lifelong friendships with Doug and Mike Baldwin and Robbie Pannell. He attended Ripley Elementary, Middle, and High Schools where he developed his love of sports, playing baseball until the end of his senior year. He completed two years of study at Marshall University, before realizing his purpose in life wasn’t going to come with a degree from a college classroom.
Just like his parents before him, John had a servant’s heart. He was a lifelong member of the Ripley Volunteer Fire Department, and though he wasn’t always active, he carried the bonds he forged with the men and women he served alongside with him throughout his life. We would never be able to list everyone there who held his love and respect, but there are a few that we know he would want to mention by name; Richard Gobble, Chuck Hitt, Stan Johnson, Scott Chinn, Matt Smittle, Louie Robinson, and Steve Nuckles. They became his brothers in ways that blood cannot define and their families, especially Rick’s son, Ritchie, became his family too. John was also a member of the fire department’s water rescue team, but, after taking what was meant to only be a short hiatus from diving, he was forced to permanently hang up his wetsuit once he realized that neoprene really isn’t that forgiving, and he was never going to fit into that piece of synthetic rubber again.
For the last 18 years, John was proud to hold a seat on Ripley’s City Council, considering it a great honor to serve the people of the town he so loved. He held a deep respect for Mayor Carolyn Rader and all of those who shared that long table with him. He never missed an opportunity to state how hard our first responders and city employees work and would want them to know how much he valued them. He, alongside his wife, Amy, also dedicated 25 years to co-chairing the Largest Smalltown Fourth of July Celebration in the Nation and was honored with both a key to the City and a Leadership Award bearing their name, which is given out annually, in recognition of their time.
His desire to serve others extended into his professional life as well. He spent his early adulthood working as a dispatcher for both the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office and the 9-1-1 Emergency Center. He was a certified paramedic, who used his training and expertise in firefighting and emergency medical response to devote the last 30 years of his life to the aluminum plant in Millwood. Though the name of the plant has changed several times throughout the years, his commitment to the safety of its structure and the people working within its walls never wavered. A terminal illness, the advice of his medical team, and a persistent wife were what finally led to his bittersweet retirement earlier this year. The kindness and grace Kramer Security, his colleagues, and team showed him during the final year of his life is something he never got over and something we will never forget. Thank you alone will never feel like enough.
When he wasn’t busy serving his community, he could be found connecting with it. He enjoyed biking along Ripley’s bike trail, playing pickleball at the City Park, starring in local plays at the Alpine Theater (ok, it was two small, supporting roles that his sister talked him into), golfing, catching a home game of his beloved Vikings, and spending every Saturday morning he could with his Breakfast Club. Of all the things cancer took from him, losing his ability to continue participating in these things was one of the hardest to accept.
Above all else, John loved his family. His wife, Amy, was his best friend and the love of his life. They shared four decades worth of love, parenting, traveling, adventure, life’s regular ups and downs, and his endless antics. A prankster by nature, no one was safe from his mischievous acts, though she was always his favorite target. As with every other endeavor of his, he took this craft quite seriously. Devoting both time and effort into every prank and always making sure his phone was set to record; he’d often instruct his reluctant accomplice to order whatever items he deemed necessary from Amazon so that Amy would not see them in their shared account history. One of our favorite stories involved him hiding in the bushes in front of their house with a confetti gun at the ready as she arrived home from a work assignment out of state. He loved his children, Patrick and Jennifer, endlessly, always making sure they knew how proud he was of them and never ending a phone call or visit without saying, “I love you.” To Alex, Isaiah, and Elizabeth he was “Papa” and, if asked, he would tell you that nothing mattered to him more. They were his greatest blessing and his hardest goodbye.
As any respectable Lee light-wash jeans and practical tennis shoe wearing man would, he always had a dad joke or one liner ready. If you knew him for any length of time, we’re sure you heard his most famous one, “I thought I was bright, but that sun sure is something else!” and though this world feels a little less bright without him, we find comfort knowing that we’ll always be able to find him in the sunshine.
On April 12, 2025, after an incredibly courageous battle with Stage IV pancreatic cancer, John Kevin McGinley left this world behind. He lived his dash well.
Funeral Service will be 2 p.m. Friday, April 18, 2025, at the Waybright Funeral Home, Ripley with Pastor Kerry Bart officiating. Burial with Masonic Rites provided by Ripley Lodge #16 AF&AM, will be in the Independence Cemetery, Sandyville. Friends may call on the family from 4 to 8 p.m. Thursday, April 17, 2025, at the funeral home.
Memories and condolences may be shared with the family by visiting www.waybrightfuneralhome.com