Wood Funeral Home
Jack Edward Mott, physicist and inventor, passed away on November 6, 2022 at Life Care Center in Idaho Falls.
Jack was born in Hammond, Indiana, on May 4, 1937, to George Edward Mott and Blanche Ethel Rose Mott and was raised in Lansing, Illinois. He was an active youth who came of age in the car culture of the early 1950s, and he built a custom hot rod with his brother George while they were teenagers. He always loved cars and driving. He became interested in physics during high school and attended the University of Chicago for his Bachelor's and Master's degrees.
He married Joan Carolyn Hansen on June 26, 1959. They moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for his first job with Westinghouse at Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory where he worked on the reactor design for the USS Enterprise aircraft carrier. He and Joan had their first two children in Pittsburgh. In 1963, Jack started his Ph.D. studies in high energy physics at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. After receiving his doctorate, he became a professor of physics at Indiana University in 1968. The early 1970s were a time of great economic uncertainty, and Jack decided to move with his family to Cupertino, California, in 1975 to work for General Electric in the area of nuclear energy. It was here that Jack began to develop novel ideas in pattern recognition which were first used to detect faults in nuclear reactors but which were then found to have wide applicability to other areas. Jack and his wife Joan had their third child in 1981. In 1985, Jack and his family moved to Idaho Falls, where Jack developed various inventions for almost the rest of his life. The time in Idaho Falls was in many ways the happiest time for Jack and Joan. He was able to get the home that his wife wanted and to raise their young daughter.
Jack was always a steadfast and loyal individual, a devoted father, and loved by his wife and children. Jack is survived by son, Charles of Oakwood, Ohio; daughter, Carolyn (David) Ciampa of Brooksville, Maine; daughter, Melissa of Dallas, Texas; and grandchildren, Catherine, John, Thomas, Claire, Francesca, Joseph, Phillip and Gerard.
Jack was preceded in death by his parents, brother George and sister Blanche.
Jack will be very much missed by his entire family. He is now reunited with his beloved wife Joan who passed away in 2021.
Graveside services will be held at 1:00 p.m. Friday, November 18, 2022, at Fielding Memorial Park Cemetery with Pastor Stephen Weems from St John's Lutheran Church officiating. The family will visit with friends beginning at 12:15 p.m. at Wood Funeral Home, 273 North Ridge Avenue prior to services at the cemetery.
LINKS
Post Register Memoriams
http://www.postregister.com
Memories
Gallery
Guestbook