In life, John “Jack” Kesling did everything he wanted.

He served his country in the Navy, married his high school sweetheart, had three children, was a musician and television personality, met countless celebrities, and rounded out his working life as a letter carrier.

“He’s done it all,” said his son, David. “What a well-rounded guy. What an amazing career.”

Saturday, at 88 years old, Mr. Kesling died of congestive heart failure at Wolf Creek Lutheran Village, his son said.

Born in Toledo on July 17, 1927, to Orval and Fern Kesling, John Kesling went on to attend and graduate from Woodward High School, though his education was paused for a stint with the Navy during World War II.

David Kesling said his father, as did so many young men in the 1940s, lied about his age and enlisted during World War II. John Kesling served two years with the Navy Seabees, stationed at Port Hueneme, as a teenager. When the war ended in 1945, he returned to Toledo to finish his schooling in 1947.

In 1948 and 1949, Mr. Kesling played semi-professional football for the North Toledo Merchants (in high school he was a four-year letterman and team quarterback). He and his brother also tried out for the Chicago White Sox at a camp in Lima, Mr. Kesling’s son said. Neither made the team.

In 1951, Mr. Kesling married his high school sweetheart, Alice. They would have been married 65 years on June 16.

From the time he was a child, lasting into his 80s, John Kesling played music — violin as a child, piano, bass guitar, and the vibraphone. He also sang.

“He was very well known in the Toledo area with some bands that he played in when he was younger,” David Kesling said. The most well-known band was called Four Keys.

The band got so good that they were called to New York City to perform on the Ted Mack Amateur Hour.

“They went out there, and got ready to play and everything, and the lady who was going on the talent show before them was Ella Fitzgerald,” David Kesling said.

The Four Keys never took the stage.

Despite being upstaged by a woman who would come to be known as the Queen of Jazz, John Kesling continued to play music in the Toledo area and Michigan. He appeared on numerous radio programs and, David Kesling said, eventually was “internationally known.”

In the late 1950s, John Kesling made his way into television, appearing first as a weatherman on WTOM in Cheboygan, Mich. In 1962, Mr. and Mrs. Kesling, with their son Todd, moved back to Toledo and Mr. Kesling got a job with WTOL and became known as “Mr. T.”

For years he wrote, directed, and appeared as Mr. T, a character who hosted morning children’s shows. Later, on WDHO — now WNWO — Mr. Kesling hosted Bowling for Dollars, a game show at Highland Lanes bowling alley.

In his working life, Mr. Kesling was also the stage manager at the Masonic Auditorium — now the Stranahan Theater — and was a letter carrier for the U.S. Postal Service, from which he retired in 1992.

“He was a doer,” said Todd Kesling, John Kesling’s son. “He did a lot of things.”

Outside of his working and musical life, Mr. Kesling coached his children in sports.

“He taught us to be participants in life rather than observers,” Todd Kesling said. “He wasn’t able to achieve all he did by being passive. … He was always looking for the good in people and always tried to put his best foot forward.”

Surviving are his wife, Alice; sons, Todd and David; daughter, Donna Heiden; eight grandchildren, and a great-grandson.

Visitation will be from 4-8 p.m. Tuesday in the David R. Jasin-Hoening Funeral Home, 5300 N. Summit St. Services will be Wednesday at 1 p.m. at the funeral home. The family requests contributions to the Zenobia Shriners Transportation Fund.

Contact Taylor Dungjen at tdungjen@theblade.com, or 419-724-6054, or on Twitter @taylordungjen.

First Published May 30, 2016, 4:00 a.m.