Posted on 02/04/2020
John Bagby Pleasants, 92, of White Stone, Virginia passed away January 29, 2020. Born in Richmond, Virginia, on Monument Avenue. John attended Westhampton and Thomas Jefferson High Schools. John was accepted to the Naval Academy and he played lacrosse on a National Championship winning team in 1949. After graduation, John married Shirley Mangini of Boston, Massachusetts. During the Korean War, he was assigned as chief engineer on an LST deployed to the war zone. John was accepted at the Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) school, where he was trained as a diver and in the rendering of safe procedures of ordnance of all types. John's final duty station was at the Naval War College in Newport, R.I. While there, He received a master’s degree in Marine Affairs (MMA) from the University of Rhode Island. After retiring from the Navy in 1970, he accepted a position as Assistant Marine Scientist at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) at Gloucester Point, Va. He retired from VIMS in 1988. John leaves behind his wife, Shirley, 65 years of wedded bliss; two sons, John B. Pleasants Jr. of White Stone and Jeffrey Roland Pleasants and his wife, Annette, of Virginia Beach; granddaughter, Sarah; great-grandson, Mason; and brother, Arthur Lee Pleasants III of Fairfax. Services will be private.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
4 February 2020