J.P. MCGUIRE, 87, OVERCAME ADVERSITY
SERVICE WILL BE AT A BOWLING ALLEY
BETTY BARNACLE, Mercury News

People have been known to attend funerals held in rather unusual places -- on land and sea and in the air.

But friends and relatives of John Phillip McGuire may have a first on their hands this weekend when they bid farewell to Mr. McGuire at a Santa Cruz bowling alley.
Mr. McGuire's daughter Joan McGuire thought it only fitting that she rent the alley and invite those close to her father ''to have a game for John'' because bowling in his case is a prime example of how a brave man without bitterness dealt with the worst that life presented him.

Mr. McGuire, who died June 30 at age 87 of congestive heart failure five months after suffering two strokes, was only 52 when numbness began in one leg and spread to the other. The athletic former San Jose High School football player became a paraplegic.

Doctors at first thought he had multiple sclerosis, Mr. McGuire's daughter said, but tests disproved this theory.

''They couldn't find out what was wrong,'' she said, ''but dad thought it might be due to the red lead paint he used in his business as a bridge painter.''

The sudden mystery disease that put him in a wheelchair could have soured him. But instead the athletic Mr. McGuire changed himself to match his changed life.

At about age 60, he rolled a bowling ball for the first time and found he was a natural for the sport, according to his daughter.

The other much younger members of the American Wheelchair Bowling Association called their oldest teammate ''Grandpa,'' she said, but saluted him for doing so well at the game that he eventually filled several boxes with trophies he'd won.

However, what he did and how he did it meant more to those who knew him than his honors.

''He turned around every bad thing that happened to him,'' his daughter said.

A native of Washington state, Mr. McGuire came to California with his identical twin, the late Frank McGuire, and three other siblings when he was 5. His father, a farmer, established his family in a big house on White Road where he continued working the land.

One day when he was 15, Mr. McGuire went with his father to see the Rudd family, prominent San Jose orchardists who had settled on a ranch on Hellyer Road in 1892. The teenager met 12-year-old Dorothy Rudd.

''They went together from then on,'' Joan McGuire said. When they were old enough, the couple wed. They had been married 64 years when Mr. McGuire's wife died 2 1/2 years ago.

When he was disabled, Mr. McGuire tried to keep his San Jose bridge-painting company going, but it didn't work out when he was an overseer and not wielding a brush. He switched for five years to selling stop signs in the valley. Then he left his San Jose home of more than a half-century and drove his hand-operated vehicle over Highway 17 to live near his daughter in Santa Cruz County.

Mr. McGuire kept bowling until he was 85, chauffeuring his teammates and helping coach a team of mentally disabled young people.

He would also wheel himself into classrooms, either teaching others English as a second language in Watsonville or helping the fourth-grade teacher at Valencia Elementary School in Aptos, who happened to be one of his granddaughters.

When he started having trouble with his reflexes about four years ago, Mr. McGuire decided he had better stop driving, which cut down on his activity.

However, until his final illness, he kept busy and smiling, his daughter said.

''He made good out of bad,'' she said.

John Phillip McGuire

Born: Dec. 8, 1915, in Redmond, Wash.

Died: June 30, 2003, in Watsonville.

Survived by: His children, Joan McGuire of Santa Cruz, Kathleen Chides of Saratoga, and Sharon Messina of Portland, Ore.; five grandchildren; and nine great-grandchildren.

Services: In a private gathering, memorial bowling will be held at a Santa Cruz bowling alley this weekend.

Memorial: Donations may be made in Mr. McGuire's name to the American Wheelchair Bowling Association, c/o Lori Johl, 115 Cliff St., Santa Cruz, Calif. 95060.