Jack “Dixie” Northrop

Jack “Dixie” Northrop, lifelong appreciator of cold beer and good music, was born in Memphis, Tennessee, on January 10th, 1941.

Jack spent early, challenging years in foster homes in New Orleans, then first found stability at St Andrews, a boarding school managed by the Episcopal Church and dedicated at the time to the care and education of over a hundred boys from ‘the mountains of Tennessee.’  Devoted always to the school, he served on the board and set up scholarships for students with financial need.  Graduating from St. Andrews in 1959, he received a scholarship to the University of Pennsylvania and that summer, hitch-hiked to Philadelphia.  At Penn, he double-majored in Engineering and Political Science, then went on to earn an MBA from Wharton.  He made lifelong friends in the Beta Theta Pi fraternity and through a Beta, Jack met Queenie Zettler.  They married in 1967 and had two daughters.

After a successful career in finance, Jack quit work and started exploring.  He was a fine, if renegade, pilot and captain, sailing single-handedly from Westport, Connecticut to the Galapagos Islands.  After this humbling first trip, good friends crewed with him, crossing the Pacific and ending up in New Zealand.  Jack was a photographer, scuba diver, fishermen, bee-keeper, beer-brewer, Boston Marathoner, triathlete.  He loved the blues, opera, old country, New Orleans Jazz and Nat King Cole singing anything.   With Queenie, he always loved returning to New Orleans and also spent many Octobers in Streeter, North Dakota, hunting with good friends and his beloved labrador retrievers, Gus and Pearl.  All his life, he loved to meet people, share stories, play some music, make someone laugh, have a laugh.

For the last ten years, Jack had dementia and he met this final test with remarkable courage, resilience and grace.  He died in West Chester, Pennsylvania on Wednesday, April 8th, in the company of his two daughters, Molly and Kate, and his wife, Queenie.  The window of the room had been left open so his soul could fly.  Dixie Jack, Godspeed.

A memorial service will be held at St Peters in the Great Valley, 2475 St Peters Road, Malvern, PA on June 27th at 2 PM.

In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to Serenity Hospice Care, St James School, or Lab Rescue LRCP:

A check to Serenity Hospice Care can be mailed directly to 3331 Street Road /  Suite 101 / Bensalem PA / 19020

A donation to St James School can be made directly at this link: https://stjamesphila.org/single-donation/

A donation to Lab Rescue LRCP can be made directly at this link: https://www.lab-rescue.org/

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