John Logan Rose III, always known as Jack, died on July 6, 2015, after a life spent as a professional photographer, avid outdoorsman and beloved man to his family.
Jack, born Nov. 2, 1956, was raised on Signal Mountain. He attended Thrasher Elementary School and graduated from the McCallie School in Chattanooga in 1974. He went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in zoology at the University of Tennessee and worked on a master’s degree in education. While a student in Knoxville, Jack’s passion and gift for photography ignited. He became a photographer for the student newspaper, The Daily Beacon, and took action shots of many UT sporting events.
He developed into a gifted photojournalist and would become chief photographer for The Knoxville Journal, with the Associated Press wire service using many of Jack’s photos. Jack also worked as a freelance photographer for several corporations, including Whittle Communications, TVA and Aflac Insurance.
Jack’s knowledge of wildflowers and fish etymology in southeast Tennessee was impressive and made him the ideal hiking and fishing companion in the region. He organized and led outdoor adventures in backpacking, camping, kayaking, fishing, whitewater rafting and alpine hut-skiing across the country. But fly fishing for trout truly was Jack’s favorite pastime. He and his best friend, Joe Stewardson, even built a drift boat in his garage from a mail-order kit one cold winter of their discontent.
Jack also had an unusual talent for genealogy and was the proclaimed Rose family genealogist, for which we all are grateful.
He was committed to wilderness land and water conservation. His greatest and earliest conservation disappointment was the impoundment of the Little Tennessee River by the Tellico Dam. He found that challenging the U.S. Congress was no small undertaking! Eventually, his patience and perseverance contributed greatly to organizations such as the Foothills Land Conservancy, which helps preserve lands around the Southern Appalachians. Sara always will remember Jack as a man who stuck to his principles. Jack’s greatest individual accomplishment had been to almost singlehandedly secure numerous conservation easements on undeveloped private land in the Cherokee National Forest bordering the Hiwassee Wild and Scenic River watershed. For over two decades, Jack and wife Sara have owned and preserved the Probst community, a unique parcel of land bordered by the Hiwassee River and Big Lost Creek.
Jack and Sara loved to travel. God created a wondrous world, and together they made an admirable effort to see it all. Their international adventures included South Africa, Botswana, Peru, Egypt, India, Yugoslavia, the Czech Republic, Scotland and Cuba, as well as trips throughout the United States. Jack especially loved Idaho’s Middle Fork of the Salmon River for kayaking and Yellowstone National Park, patiently stalking his beloved salmonids in the pristine rivers.
To some people Jack seemed to be an introvert, given his many days of solitary existence while maintaining his beloved Hiwassee River property at Probst, but nothing could be further from the truth. Jack was an extrovert and had scores of friends, many of whom reading this would reliably claim that Jack was their best friend. That was one of his gifts – commitment to friends and making everyone he met feel special and important. As more than one friend has said: “Jack is a good guy!” Sara said that is how Jack desired to be remembered.
The family received friends at Rose Mortuary Mann Heritage Chapel, 6200 Kingston Pike, Knoxville, on Friday, July 10, at noon, with services at 1:30 p.m.
Jack is survived by his wife, Sara Fortune Rose; parents, John Logan Rose Jr. and Winifred Cullom Rose of Signal Mountain; brother, Walter Burr Rose of Chattanooga; and sisters, Jayne Rose Walker of Columbia, S.C.; Mary Jo Rose Ashcraft of Charlotte, N.C.; and Elizabeth Rose Provence of Atlanta; as well as many in-laws, and nieces and nephews to whom he was "the favorite uncle.”
The family requested that memorial donations be made to the Foothills Land Conservancy, 373 Ellis Ave., Maryville, TN, 37804, or online at http://foothillsland.org/.
Jack was loved more than we can express. He will be missed every day by friends, family, his dogs and his beloved Sara.