John W. Woichom

JOHN W. WOICHOM, 71, passed away on Saturday, May 31, 2025 at his home in Atwood, Illinois.

Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 11:00 A.M. on Friday, June 6, 2025 at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Arcola, IL. Burial will be in the Arcola Cemetery. Visitation will be from 10:00 A.M. to 11:00 A.M., also at St. John’s.

John was born on March 5, 1954 on Ali Island, Sundaun Province, Papua New Guinea, to Adolph and Emily Taiwas Woichom. His Ali clan name, Keinyawi, was given to him by his father. (A variant of this name is Winyawi, hence his middle initial, W.)

On December 18, 1987, John married Nibiki-Ankoet Cole in Champaign, IL.

He was previously married to Dorothy Tekwei of Papua New Guinea.

John is survived by a son, William Tekwei of Wewak, Papua New Guinea; two grandchildren, Jordan and Dayna Tekwei; two brothers, Frank Woichom and Louie Woichom of Aitape, Papua New Guinea; one sister, JoAnne T. Woichom of Aitape, Papua New Guinea. He is also survived by three stepchildren: Sheila Lee Kennedy Martin of Watertown, NY; Shannon Lionel Kennedy of Dover, NJ; and Renita Kate Kennedy of Louisiana.

John was preceded in death by his parents, Adolph and Emily, his wife Nibiki, and stepson Wesley F. Kennedy.

Of the 40 students in his class on Ali Island, John was one of the two selected for boarding school on the mainland. In 1974 he joined the University of Papua New Guinea where he completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in anthropology in 1977. John was appointed to the university position of Teaching Fellow in Anthropology and Sociology in 1977 and studied for a second BA with Honors in economic anthropology and oral history completed in 1979.

John’s academic success led to his selection for a prestigious Fulbright-Margaret Mead grant for academic study in the US. In Fall 1979 John began his course of study at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. John produced and published research that is still being used by scholars today. He is remembered by his professors and fellow students as a great conversationalist who connected well with people – skills that his native society cherished in their young men.

After the passing of Nibiki in 2011, life became very challenging for John. He was often ill during the winter in Central Illinois, so very different from the tropical climate of Ali Island. But he maintained an optimistic outlook and dreamed of returning to his studies at the university.

Emerita Professor Janet Keller notes, “He was a kind and gregarious person, and he dared to achieve much. Perhaps the change of physical environment and social life was more than he bargained for all those many years ago. Without John Woichom the world is a little less joyful place. I will miss the smile in his voice.”