Prentiss Obituary

Dear Ithaca Journal and Hamilton County News,

Please put the following obituary for my father John Prentiss in your papers. My name is Jennifer Prentiss Morrill, 740 Seminole Way, Palo Alto, CA 94303, phone: 650-812-0576. Please contact me regarding billing info. I would also like the picture below included. If that won't work, I have other photos but I'd prefer this one.

Following is the obituary:

John Gilbert Prentiss died on February 13, 2005 in Rabun Gap, Georgia, at the age of 61.

Over the course of John's life, he worked as a real estate developer, hotel manager, professional potter, stained glass artisan, auto mechanic, furniture maker, Dixieland jazz musician, carpenter, business owner, and inventor, among other jobs. In pursuing his many talents, John tackled each new challenge with enthusiasm, fearlessness and boundless creativity.

John graduated from the Darrow School in 1962 and the Cornell University School of Hotel and Restaurant Management in 1966. Upon graduation from Cornell, he joined the leasing department of Helmsley-Spear & Company. He then went to the Rouse Company, where he worked on the innovative planned community of Columbia, Maryland and led in the development of many specialty shopping malls, including Harborplace in Baltimore, South Street Seaport in New York City and Faneuil Hall Marketplace in Boston. As a resident of Piseco, New York, he was manager of The Irondequoit Inn, a community housing representative and an active volunteer for the Piseco Fire Department ambulance squad. Most recently, he was the CEO of Adiri, Inc., a company he founded to sell his patented invention, the Breastbottle nurser, a unique baby bottle designed to replicate a mother's breast.

John was also an accomplished artist and musician. He sold his pottery in exclusive galleries and his stained glass weathervanes through such outlets as Hammacher-Schlemmer, and played banjo with a number of Dixieland jazz bands throughout the country. A devoted outdoorsman who thrived on adventure, John loved to hike, canoe, and otherwise explore the trails, peaks, rivers and backroads that surrounded his homes, especially in his beloved Adirondacks.

John was a committed environmentalist and passionately devoted to the cause of world peace. In the desert outside of Santa Fe, New Mexico, John built and lived in a completely self-sufficient, solar-powered straw-bale house with his late wife Brigitta Prentiss, and he personally remodeled many other "fixer-upper" homes into beautiful living spaces, employing recycled building materials as much as possible. He made many of the everyday objects he used in his life, like his dishes, furniture and pots, power generators, and even the wedding rings he shared with Brigitta.

John is survived by his brother and sister-in-law, Bard and Gina Prentiss, his daughters Jennifer Prentiss Morrill and Jessica Prentiss, his grandchildren Ronan and Lila Morrill, nephews Jared and George Prentiss, and nieces Mariah Prentiss and Marcie Prentiss Mann.

Support of an environmental organization of one's choice is suggested to those wishing to remember John

Celebrations of John's life will take place on April 30 in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and on August 14 at Piseco Lake, New York.