Obituary
RICHARD W. JEWELL –
Richard (Dick) Jewell age (81) of Fort Myers, FL. passed away on Saturday, July 3, 2022. Dick was born in Queens, New York to Olga and Wendel Jewell. Predeceased by his older sister, Linda and survived by younger brother, Fred.
After graduating from West Hempstead High, Long Island, NY, Dick tried on a few colleges – Worcester Polytechnic Institute, MA and Post Jr College, NY. Finally, after a little push from his family, he graduated from Hofstra University, NY with a BBA in Accounting.
An accounting degree from Hofstra University somehow brought him to the Navy (go figure). Dick decided the Navy sounded like an adventure and applied to the Navy’s Officers Candidate School (OCS). Dick passed the entrance interview and tests and was assigned to the Navy’s Newport, RI base for training…on to becoming a 90 Day Wonder – Lt. JG Richard Jewell…Engineer Officer on the Destroyer USS Stickell DD888.
While at OCS training Richard met his wife, Shirley. A handsome Naval Officer to-be and a young woman enjoying her weekends down at the shore. Dick graduated from OCS at 12:00pm, November 22, 1963 (the day Kennedy got shot). It was a traumatic day for all the graduates and there was confusion, as to whether they should report for their first duty assignment immediately or proceed as originally instructed. They had just graduated and had scattered for a little R&R before reporting to duty.
Richard and Shirley married in 1965 and after 3 years with the Navy, he jumped back into the world of accounting with Price Waterhouse in the Boston Office. From then on, it was numbers all the way. Price Waterhouse Boston/San Diego tax offices; Combustion Engineering
Stamford, CT Cooperate Taxes Accountant; Asea Brown Boveri ABB, Stamford, CT North American Cooperate Tax Accountant from which he retired
During Richard and Shirley’s fifty-seven of marriage, they were blessed with two extremely remarkable children…daughter, Dawn Helen Jewell and son, William Arthur Jewell. And their extraordinary grandson, Ocean Anthony Jewell.
Dick always loved being near the water, enthralled, from an early age with the 1950s TV shows, Sea Hunt and Flipper, filmed in Florida.
The simple life was for Richard. Being around the water was where he found his happy places. The Jewells lived in many beautiful seaside locations. But his favorite happy places were – Rowayton, Ct, Sanibel Island Fl, and Shell Point on his Lanai with his great view of the Caloosahatchee River, Fort, Myers, Fl. Dick, also, enjoyed yard work, (not much of a gardener but a mean weeder).
Thursday night was his favorite night of the week, it was Thursday night out with the guys; good friends for over twenty years here in Florida – Rick, Wayne, Bill, Tom, John, and Cliff. And of course, he enjoyed taking to the dance floor with his wife, Shirley at the many fundraising events on Sanibel and the wonderful, more formal Sanibel Cotillion Dances.
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