JOHN R. RUMERY
John (Jack) Rollins Rumery, 99, died peacefully January, 21, at St. Joseph of the Pines, after a brief illness. Born in New York City, September 24 1916, he was the son of the late Ralph R. Rumery and Gladys Gilbert Rumery.
He grew up in Short Hills, NJ, and spent summers between Nantucket Island and his families’ ancestral home of Gilbertsville, NY. He was a direct descendent of Abijah Gilbert founder of Gilbertsville.
Jack was an avid sportsman his entire life. During his school years he played on the football, hockey, and baseball teams, and played golf and tennis throughout his life well into his eighties.
He attended St. Paul’s School in Concord, NH and high school at Cheshire Academy in Cheshire CT. In high school he contracted polio and spent most of his senior year in recovery, graduating a year late. He spent his college years at the University of Virginia and graduated in 1941 with a B.S. in Commerce. He was a member of Delta Psi fraternity. His polio left him with a weakened leg which prevented him from playing the team sports he loved so much. Instead he managed the baseball and football teams while attending college.
During WWII he was unable to serve in the armed forces. He was employed by Northeast Airlines as a navigator for Air Transport Command flying out of Presque Isle Airforce Base in Maine, delivering supplies to a station in the Arctic Circle.
After the war, he moved to Schenectady NY where he worked as a salesman for a local newspaper. He later moved to St. Johnsville, NY where he became owner and publisher of The St. Johnsville Enterprise and News which he sold before moving back to Gilbertsville.
He spent the rest of his working career as a salesman for Syracuse Lithograph, in Syracuse NY. He and his second wife Beatrice Butler Sargent, lived in their home in Gilbertsville until her death in 1971.
He married Nancy Kluge Hall in 1977. Having spent winter vacations in Pinehurst, they moved to North Carolina full time in 1981. He was a member of the New York and North Carolina chapters of Sons of the American Revolution and a member of the Tin Whistles, Pinehurst.
He is predeceased by his brother Richard Gilbert Rumery of Short Hills, NJ, and by his daughter Sarah Rumery Heighton, of Amherst, NH, and a stepdaughter from his second marriage, Susan Sargent.
He is survived by his wife Nancy Rumery of Southern Pines, his son John R. Rumery Jr, of St. Petersburg FL, stepdaughter Lisa Brooks of Barrington IL, stepson David Hall of Detroit MI, granddaughters Kelley Heighton of Elmsford, NY and Samantha Heighton of Merrimack NH, three great-grandchildren; step-grandson Whitney Brooks of Glen Ellyn, IL, step-granddaughter Stacey Sicher of Palatine, IL; three stepchildren from his second marriage as well as step grandchildren; nieces and nephews and many cousins.
He will be remembered for his good nature, gentlemanly manner, and his sportsmanship.
In lieu of flowers donations may be made to the Tin Whistles Scholarship Fund, Pinehurst, NC or Village Improvement Society, Gilbertsville, NY.
A graveside memorial service will be held in Gilbertsville at a later date.
Online condolences may be made at www.bolesfuneralhome.com