John Roy MacMillan
June 25, 1949-June 11, 2024
Portola Valley, California

John Roy MacMillan passed away at home June 11th, 2024 from lymphoma. Born in Maryland on June 25 1949 to Virginia (an OR head scrub nurse with the Army Nurses) and Oscar (a career Navy Officer), John liked to say both his parents held the rank of Captain. What he didn't like about growing up in a military family was moving frequently, staying for a year or so in Virginia, Hawaii, Pennsylvania among others.

So, when he came to Stanford in 1967 on a National Merit Scholarship from IBM, he fell in love with the Bay Area and never left. A brilliant student with a passion for Mathematics, he nonetheless had a few moments of “tuning in, turning on, and dropping out” like many in the late sixties, such as “taking a semester off” and bartering his cooking skills to live in a parachute-tent on the lawn of the “Hippie Fraternity” Beta Chi. Some allege he once drove his motorcycle down the dorm hallway; none deny it.

Regarding careers, he used to say "people are not ants- we can have more than one role in our lifetimes" and he proved this. After majoring in math (like his lovely wife Marilyn) and minoring in Computer Science (before there was a major) he was a software engineer in the early days of Silicon Valley at new companies he found interesting, such as Apple and Adobe, and co-authored Deluxe Music Construction Set, an early music notation to .midi file program. He later worked in startups in the automotive, medical, hardware, and construction industries. He held six patents, in the distinct areas of computer typography and concrete machinery.

An avid reader and thinker, he valued education, in particular for women and girls. Though he was agnostic, he had a lingering Presbyterian drive to “do something useful” at all times. He claimed to value science above “the Arts” but loved music, almost as much as he loved holding babies and shooting off fireworks (usually not at the same time). He was an excellent cook who made a healthy and delicious dinner for his family every night, and appreciated the outdoors, especially the majesty of California. A dependable creature of habit, he went to the same gym every other day for 30 years, only changing when the Googleplex enveloped his beloved Gold’s Gym.

John will be remembered for his intelligence, curiosity, dedication to his family, and sense of humor. A true individual, he did not suffer fools gladly nor follow trends but did enjoy learning how the world works and finding out what was coming next. He fought his yearlong cancer battle with courage, tenacity, humor, and only occasional profanity. He will be dearly missed by his wife of 48 years, Marilyn; daughters Jeannette, Leslie and Laura; brother David; sons-in-law Sam and Henry; grandchildren Malcolm and Nora; and anyone who's had a long conversation with him.