John M. “Jack” Hart, Age 81, of Pineland, S.C. died September 25, 2023. He was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1942 and spent his early years in Wooster, Ohio and on his grandparents’ farm in Paint Valley, Holmes County, Ohio. He graduated from Culver Military Academy in Culver, Indiana in 1961 and The Citadel in Charleston, S.C. in 1965. Upon graduation from The Citadel he was commissioned in the United States Air Force where he served in alert reconnaissance and ICBM missile units of the Strategic Air Command.
For a brief period, he resided in Indiana but spent the majority of his life in the Low Country of South Carolina in Charleston, Beaufort and Jasper counties working as a general contractor in the construction business. He was also trained in England as a Quantity Surveyor and later in his career worked in the southern Caribbean and southeastern United States for a number of European clients and British lending institutions. In retirement he worked for the Barbados Ministry of Commerce and as a volunteer for the Barbados Museum and Historical Society in Bridgetown, Barbados.
ln 1977, he was nominated by the Indiana State Police for the Carnegie Medal for attempting to save an employee from an earthen cave in, during which, he became entrapped and injured. The experience had a profound influence on his life and during the remainder of his days he pursued helping others through his writing and philanthropic work, much of it done anonymously. He was an accomplished woodworker and writer and enjoyed the country and his small farm near Pineland, S.C. That which he treasured most in life was being with his wife Laurel.
He is survived by his wife Dr. Laurel A. Berry, daughters Alyssa Berry, Andrea Moreno (Yorlliry), Mindy Sattele, Mary Lee Haan, grandchildren, Arlo and Theo Moreno, Anna, Wilson and Davis Sattele, Stephen and Katherine Haan, sister-in- law Anita Hart, father-in-law and mother-in-law John and Anne Schaumberg, brothers-in-law Jay (Tina) and Jeff (Wendy) Schaumberg and a host of nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by one brother James “Jim” Hart and one sister Judy Haas.
A celebration of life will be held at a later date.
Donations in his name may be made to: The Special Operations Warrior Foundation,1137 Marbella Plaza Dr.,Tampa, Fla. 33619