The State (Columbia): Thursday, August 9, 2001 John Gasque Jr. MIAMI, Fla. (--)Graveside services for John Oscar "Jack" Gasque Jr., 87, will be held at 2 p.m. Friday, August 10, 2001 in Rose Hill Cemetery of Marion, directed by Smith-Collins Funeral Home of Marion. The family will receive friends from noon to 1 p.m. Friday at the funeral home. Mr. Gasque died Sunday, August 5, 2001 at his home in Miami. Born in Marion on December 28, 1913, he was a son of the late John O. Gasque and Kathryn Pratt Gasque. Mr. Gasque graduated from Francis Marion High School, where he lettered in five sports. He spent his summers at Murrells Inlet and learned to survey under the guidance of Col. Monroe Johnson of World War I fame. Mr. Gasque graduated from Clemson, a military college in 1937, and was a member of Sigma Nu Fraternity. After college, he became a civil engineer for the U.S. Coast & Geodetic Survey. He later worked for Vacuum Concrete, Inc. and helped design pumped-concrete structures. Mr. Gasque met Velva Meier of Fredericksburg, Iowa in Washington, D.C. and married her on June 19, 1942. During World War II, Mr. Gasque was a lieutenant in the Navy Seabees, 42nd Construction Battallion. The 42nd Battalion's first assignment was to clear Port Chicago, Calif. after an ammunition ship exploded. The 42nd Seabees built port facilities, airbases and submarine bases in the Aleutian Islands. Mr. Gasque helped build a hospital in the Philippines. At the end of the war, he was building a cemetery in anticipation of casualities from the invasion of Japan. After the war, Mr. Gasque lived with his bride, Velva in Marion, where he built many homes and where his son, John O. Gasque III was born. Later, as an engineer for Texaco, Mr. Gasque moved his family to Birmingham, Ala. where his daughter was born. He built a steel mill in Texas, a tire plant in Nashville and a paper mill in Rome, Ga. Mr. Gasque also helped build the waterworks system for Panama City Beach, Fla. In 1961, he moved his family to Miami and worked as a civil engineer for the U.S. Coast Guard from which he retired. Surviving are his wife of 59 years, Velva; son, John O. Gasque III of Miami; daughter, Joan Gasque Hagen of Tallahassee; son-in-law, David Hagen; grandsons, John "Jay" Gasque IV and Bram Gasque Hagen.