SEARSPORT — John “Jack” H. Ambrose Jr. died peacefully after 91 years on April 29, 2019, at his home in Searsport, Maine.

Jack was born in Peabody, Massachusetts on November 13, 1927; the son of John H. Ambrose and Edith V. (Fish) Ambrose of Danvers, MA.

He is survived by his son, Michael J. Ambrose, his wife Anne (Robinson) Ambrose and their children Emily, Annette and Rory of Morrill ME; his son, John W. Ambrose, his husband Laurence E. Miller III of Danvers, MA; and his daughter Mary Ann Ordelt, her husband Thomas Ordelt and their children Fiona and Ryan of Searsport, ME.

Jack was raised in Danvers during the Great Depression. In his later years, he shared stories of how life was when he was a young boy. He attended and graduated from Holten Richmond High School.

After high school, Jack joined the U.S. Navy and was a veteran of the Korean War. In the war, he worked as a radio repairman and corpsman. After serving six years in the navy, he left and became a Licensed Practical Nurse. 

He worked as an LPN at Lynn Hospital where he met and later married the late Mary Catherine Thompson RN in 1960.

In 1972, he graduated from North Shore Community College with an associate’s degree in nursing science. Jack worked at Danvers State Hospital as a registered nurse in the psychiatric ward for violent patients for over twenty years. 

Jack and Mary were married for fifty years before Mary died in 2010. They raised their three children in Danvers and retired to Searsport, ME in 2003.

Jack was a longtime member of the local Fish and Game Club and The Knights of Columbus where he served as Grand Knight. He spent many evenings at the K of C Hall playing cards with his friends and at the lodge tying flies. He loved both fresh and saltwater fishing and would often give away his catch after a long day of the deep-sea fishing to neighborhood friends  His vegetable garden also reaped the benefits of his successful fishing, which he also would happily give away. He enjoyed to draw and paint, play golf, bowl, play darts and Bingo and he was pretty good at them all.

The day before he died, he played Bingo at the Tarratine Hall in Belfast and was one number shy of winning the jackpot, then went home and died in his sleep. His family would say that he won the lottery.

A memorial mass will be held May 24, at 11 a.m., at St Frances of Assisi, in Belfast, Maine.

Arrangements are under the care of Riposta Funeral Home, Belfast, ME. 

Memories and condolences may be shared with the family at www.ripostafh.com.