John grew up in Marion County, Kansas and graduated from Florence High School in 1941.  He attended Phillips University in Enid, Oklahoma and had his college days interrupted by Pearl Harbor.  He then served as a Marine Lieutenant in the South Pacific returning after the war to graduate from Phillips in 1947.  After his return he met Maxine Dillon, an Enid native, who later graduated from Phillips in 1948.  John’s first teaching position (1947) after college was as a history teacher and coach at Rose Hill, Kansas High School.  He and Maxine married in the summer of 1948, and she joined him as a Rose Hill commerce teacher during the period of 1948-1951.  John was recalled into the Marines during the Korean Conflict and was discharged from active service in the summer of 1952.  The Ireland family then moved to Wichita, Kansas where John worked on completing his coursework for his Master’s degree at the University of Wichita.  The last semester of the 52-53 school year he filled in as a history teacher at Wichita East High School.  During this time in Wichita, a colleague in his Master’s program who was teaching in Mulvane told him about an open teaching position in that system.  He applied and was hired as a 6th grade teacher for the Mulvane system.  The Irelands moved to Mulvane in the summer of 1953 and before school started, John and Ed Thomas swapped positions so John instead taught 7th and 8th graders during the 53-54 school year.