John Emmett Goyert, 63, Loved Acting and Singing

John Emmett Goyert Jr. died peacefully at home on Martha's Vineyard on Sunday, Dec. 4, after a remarkable battle with cancer. He was 63.

Born on April 14, 1942, to a musical family in Cincinnati, Ohio, it was only natural for John to blossom into a thespian and singer on and off the stage. His mother, Dorothy Mather Goyert (a direct descendent of Cotton Mather), and father, John Emmett Goyert, had a piano teacher that inspired John to channel his loud and boisterous voice into song. It was at Walnut Hills High School, from which he was graduated in 1960, that John began his singing career with the chorus and a cappella choir. At Hamilton College (Class of 1964), he began his theatrical career playing Caliban in Shakespeare's The Tempest.

"It was the perfect introduction to the theatre for me," he said, "because it was a role villainous but sympathetic, outrageous yet endearing."

He was a member of the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity at Hamilton and a record-setting member of the swim team. His athletic workouts helped increase his lung capacity for four strong years with the Hamilton choir and the a cappella quartet Guinch and the Lunch Bags.

Having been rejected for military service because of a fused vertebra from birth, John was able to pursue a graduate degree at Columbia Business School from 1964 to 1966, where he majored in marketing. His love for the limelight drove him to a career in advertising, beginning at Young and Rubicam in 1966. He then moved to Ogilvy & Mather, where he remained for 19 years. "As an advertising executive my role was to sell clients on conducting their marketing activities the way I thought they should, and as an actor you are selling the audience a character. You are always on stage, as an advertising executive or an actor," he said.

While in New York city, John joined the Blue Hill Troupe, a theatre group that performed Gilbert and Sullivan operettas each year for charity. He became president of the group in 1979. It is also how he met his wife, Alice Franklin. "I was a front stager and actor and she was a back stager working on the set. My wife and I were one of many Blue Hill Troupe marriages," he recalled.

As a member, John acted and sang in every Gilbert and Sullivan operetta at least once, starring as Stefan in Iolanthe and Dick Deadeye in H.M.S. Pinafore. John also performed with the St. Bart Players on Park avenue. His favorite roles there were John Proctor in The Crucible and the sympathetic villain Judd Fry in Oklahoma, a depiction which was praised as "the best I've ever seen" by the New York Times. Expanding his amateur acting and singing career to Connecticut when John and Alice took up residency in Darien, John played Fred Graham/Petruchio in Kiss Me, Kate at the Wilton Playhouse, his all-time favorite role.

In 1980 John's love for adventure drove him to accept a job running the Argentine branch of Ogilvy & Mather in Buenos Aires. "It was the best decision I ever made," said John. "We became even closer as a family and made wonderful international friends."

After the Falkland Island War in 1982, he and his family moved to São Paulo, Brazil, and in January 1985 they moved to Mexico City, Mexico. While running the local offices of Ogilvy & Mather in each country, John and his family became fluent in Portuguese and Spanish. And of course, John was active in his avocation supporting and participating in community theatre and church choirs wherever he landed. His favorite role was King Arthur in Camelot alongside his son, John, who played King Arthur's son.

In 1988 John returned with his family to the United States, where he ran the Sears account for Ogilvy & Mather in Chicago, Ill. Later he took a job in the marketing department for Citibank. "I decided I wanted to become a client. As a client, I was the guy that made the decisions." He then took over marketing for Diners Club International, a subsidiary of Citibank, joined Western Union International and, finally, Bank One in Columbus, Ohio.

During this time he was a member of the Jolly Boys, an a cappella group in Hinsdale, Ill., and the Singing Buckeyes, a barbershop choir in Columbus, Ohio. Having finally decided it was time to pursue his other passion, golf, John retired in 1999 to Martha's Vineyard, where he and his family had been coming every summer since 1980.

With retirement, John again had time for community theatre. He joined the Royal Palm Players in Boca Grande, Fla., where he and Alice spent a few months every winter. He played yet another villain in the Neil Simon comedy Fools, which again allowed him to traipse across the stage, entertaining audiences. He also became active in the Vineyard Playhouse and recently served as treasurer. He played the preacher in The Rymers of Eldridge, costarred in Lifeguards on Duty, and also participated in the Island Theatre Workshop in Once upon a Mattress and the Mikado. When in town he sang with the Island Community Chorus.

John's golf vocalizations and overly dramatic playing style won over audiences at courses from Farm Neck in Oak Bluffs to Lemon Bay in Florida, where he was a member, as well as at several other clubs across Ohio, Illinois and Latin America. While most of John's daylight hours in retirement were spent hitting that little white ball around the course, his nighttime hours were spent entertaining friends with stories and songs. John was a lover of people and life and lived it to the fullest.

John is survived by his wife, Alice Franklin Goyert; three children, John Emmett Goyert 3rd of New York city, Wendy Mather Goyert of Washington, D.C., and Holly Franklin Goyert of San Francisco, Calif.; his mother, Dorothy Mather Goyert of Cincinnati, Ohio; his sister, Sanna Mather Goyert of New York city; and his grandson, Lani Colombo Goyert.

A memorial service was held Saturday, Dec. 10, at the Federated Church in Edgartown.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in memory of John to The Sarcoma Foundation of America, P.O. Box 458, Damascus, MD 20872. Arrangements are under the care of the Chapman, Cole & Gleason Funeral Home in Oak Bluffs. Visit www.ccgfuneralhome.com for online guest book and information.