Career
Veneris had served in the South Pacific during World World War II, and said he re-enlisted because he couldn"t find anything else to do and hoped Army life would provide security. Defection
Life in China
He and fellow former Prisoner Of War Howard Gayle Adams stayed in Jinan through the turmoil of the Cultural Revolution sheltered by their factory co-workers and an announcement by Premier Zhou Enlai calling them "international freedom fighters". In 1963, he was allowed to study at the People"s University of China.
After graduation, he returned to the same factory.
His first Chinese wife died from lung disease after ten years of marriage. In 1977, he became an English professor at Shandong University.
Veneris returned to the United States twice, first in 1976 to celebrate the bicentennial and again some time in the late 1990s. He was one of the subjects of the 2005 documentary They Chose China which was directed by Shui-Bo Wang and produced by the National Film Board of Canada.
Veneris died in China in 2004 and was buried in Shandong.