Jack Ross Bellows

1936 - 2024

A life of love, adventure and accomplishment ended peacefully on March 9, 2024 in Memphis.

Surrounded by family, Jack Ross Bellows, 87, took the final breath of a life that would have taken the breath away of most humans. He was born in 1936 in Montgomery, Alabama, where he attended Sidney Lanier High School and later the University of Alabama.

Known to most friends as Jackie, and as Jacko to his grandsons, he had a career that spanned almost as many industries as he had hobbies: home builder, investment banker, food manufacturing, and founder of iScreen®, a vision screening technology company, in 1998. But that's just work, and not even all of it. Indeed, talking to Jack seemed an ever-expanding revelation of things he had done.

He was a self-taught artist who never took an art class but whose doodles, decoys, shore birds, fish and walking sticks are treasured by those lucky enough to have been gifted one. He raced cars in the 1950s, perfected his pepper jelly now known as Jacko's Pepper Jelly that is now sold all over the South. He loved visiting friends in Cuba in the 1950s and said he could still remember the beautiful sights and smells of that country. He ran many marathons and triathlons, including the Boston Marathon several times. He used to be known as "the man in the red hat" who ran all over town as he averaged 100 miles per week while training.

The outdoors was his real cathedral, and his love of hunting and fishing, and his literal ability to shoot from the hip, were unequalled. He was happiest on a boat in blue water or calling up a turkey in the woods.

His biggest loves were of his family– his wife of 60 years Lela and daughters Sydney and Lela – and his grandsons Jack and Max, each of whom made him immensely proud as they both inherited his passions and talents.

Jack was predeceased by his parents, Ida Touro Bellows and Harry Bellows, and his brothers Sheldon and Harris Bellows. He is survived by his loving wife Lela Hudson Bellows, daughter Sydney Bellows, daughter Lela Bellows Gerald and son-in-law Lee Gerald, and grandsons Jack Gerald and Max Simpson.

They don't make them like Jack Bellows very often. He cut quite a path through this world, and those of us who knew and loved him know just what a loss his passing is.

Jack will be celebrated on Saturday, March 23rd at Canale Funeral Home on Union Extended, with visitation at 10 a.m. and a service to follow at 11:00.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be sent to Thrive Memphis.