John F. Tillman, a longtime Owens-Illinois chemist who worked in his field for most of his retirement, died Tuesday in his Maumee home. He was 87.

He had cancer, his daughter Julie Tillman said.

Mr. Tillman was employed part-time until age 85 for the analytical laboratory in Maumee of American Glass Research, itself a successor of Monarch Analytical Laboratories, a firm spun off in the late 1980s by O-I. He examined color samples sent in monthly by Libbey Glass. 

“He was very highly regarded. He was knowledgeable and a brilliant man,” said Brian Mitchell, assistant manager for the firm in Maumee, who as a newly hired Monarch associate chemist met Mr. Tillman in 1988. 

Mr. Tillman started at O-I decades earlier and often offered such perspective as, “‘I saw that in 1967, and this is how we worked on it,’” Mr. Mitchell recalled.

“He was easy-going, a very gentle spirit, a very likable guy,” Mr. Mitchell said.

Mr. Tillman went to work on the dock of O-I’s former Westwood Avenue technical center after his 1953 graduation from Central Catholic on Westwood Avenue.

“He always had a liking for chemistry and talked to one of the bosses there,” daughter Diane Whelton said. 

That led to his work in the laboratory. He was on the job at O-I during the day and attended night classes at the University of Toledo, where he studied inorganic chemistry. He received a bachelor’s degree in 1965.

“At least four of us kids were already born by the time he got out of college,” Miss Tillman said. “He was goal-oriented. He kept going because that’s what the family needed and what he needed to support his family.”

He was an analytical chemist and later a senior chemist at O-I. He was based in Perrysburg while working for the glass container division, but traveled to company plants around the country. He retired in 1992.

“He mostly enjoyed working with other chemists and brainstorming if they had an issue,” Mrs. Whelton said. 

At work and at home — with six children — he was methodical and organized.

“He would sit back and say, ‘Let’s talk this through,’” Miss Tillman said.

He was born Feb. 28, 1935, to Hildegarde and George Tillman and grew up on Colburn Street in South Toledo. He was an altar server through high school at his home parish, Ss. Peter and Paul Church. He remained a devout Catholic, attended Mass daily, and was a leader of Rosary groups at St. Patrick of Heatherdowns Church, St. Joseph Church in North Toledo, and St. Joseph Church in Maumee.

He cherished summer family get-togethers, no matter how crowded, at Wampler’s Lake in the Irish Hills of southern Michigan.

“He always instilled in us, friends will come and go through your life, but you’ll have family,” Miss Tillman said. “Stay together. Work through problems.”

He and the former Mary Jo Leahey married June 1, 1957. She died Feb. 20, 2013.

Surviving are his daughters Diane Whelton, Julie Tillman, Susan Klein, Caroline Hofmann, and Gretchen Holloway; son, John Tillman, Jr.; brothers James Tillman, Paul Tillman, and David Tillman; sister, Mary Ann Zeller; 18 grandchildren, and eight great-grandchildren.

Visitation will be from 2-8 p.m. Sunday at Coyle Funeral Home, where a Rosary service will begin at 7 p.m. The funeral Mass will begin at 10 a.m. Monday at St. Patrick of Heatherdowns Church.

The family suggests tributes to Ability Center of Great Toledo; Hospice of Northwest Ohio, or a charity of the donor’s choice.

First Published June 11, 2022, 4:00 a.m.