John J. Schweitzer, 82, of Northbrook, a former salesman for a specialty steel firm, died June 16 in Evanston Hospital. Mr. Schweitzer, a Chicago native, attended Northwestern University but left school during the Depression to run numbers on Milwaukee Avenue, said his wife of 52 years, Mary. He later took a job at the Wrigley Building for an insurance company, but quit and enlisted when war broke out. A navigator of a B-17 bomber for the Army Air Corps, he made 52 runs over Germany and trained his Russian counterparts. “He was one of these people, if he made up his mind, he does it,” said Mary Schweitzer. After the war he worked three decades as a salesman for Carpenter Tech, a specialty steel firm. He was an athletic man, going on 25-mile bike rides well into his 70s. Other survivors include three daughters, Judy Hall, Ginny Yasdick and Nancy; a son Jim; and a sister, Sister Trinette Schweitzer.
