John Hare Powel, 84, died March 13.

He was born on April 3, 1920 in Providence, R.I., the fourth child of Samuel Powel and Grace Elizabeth (Elsa) Putnam Powel.

He grew up in Providence, graduated from St. George’s School in Newport, R.I. in 1938, and went on to Harvard University.

He enjoyed his college life overly much at Harvard, and so took an enforced leave for a year to work at Brown and Sharpe, after which he returned and finished with his classes, earning a bachelor of science degree in geology in 1942. He married Ann Corson Ellis on June 7, 1942, in Bethlehem, Pa.

He reported for duty the following December as a naval ensign assigned to the USS Greer, a destroyer that escorted troop ships through the North Atlantic past German U-boat “wolfpacks.” By 1944 he was in the South Pacific aboard the USS Devosa, an attack transport.

After the war, he was hired by the Gorham Silver Company as a salesman, bringing him and his family to the Pacific Northwest in 1946. His love of the area only intensified as he traveled the states of Washington, Idaho, Oregon, Montana and Alaska.

He purchased the National Company in about 1961, becoming a manufacturer’s representative for construction materials suppliers.

For more than 25 years, he enjoyed the travels and friendships he developed as a “salesman of nuts, screws and bolts.”

In 1954, he moved his family to Bainbridge Island and the west side of Port Madison Bay.

Old “salts” may remember the birth of the Port Madison Jib and Jug Society in 1956, of which Johnny became the first commodore. He also enjoyed skiing.

For 51 years, his home was his passion. He was a staunch supporter of the environment and granted a conservation easement to the Bainbridge Island Land Trust on his property for the safekeeping of otters, seals, eagles, herons, ducks and the natural flora.

He is survived by his wife of 62 years, Ann; sons John Jr. “Jake” and his wife Pam, Jeff and his wife Fran, and Michael; daughter Dorothy and her husband Larry Kehres; grandchildren Liza Powel (Conan) O’Brien, Sarah Powel, Gregory Powel and Melissa Powel; step-grandchildren Margi, Alan and Douglas Kehres and their children; great-granddaughter, Neve O’Brien; many nieces and nephews; and his sister, Grace Powel Ritchie of Freeport, Maine.

He was preceded in death by his brother Sam, and one sister, Elizabeth Powel Crosby.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that remembrances may be made to any of the following organizations: the Bainbridge Island Land Trust (www.bi-landtrust.org); the World Wildlife Fund (www.worldwildlife.org); or Catspaw, which rescues and finds homes for homeless cats (www.catspawfoundation.org).

Arrangements are under the direction of Kass Funeral Home, Bainbridge Island.

Services will be at 11 a.m. April 2 at St. Barnabas Church on Bainbridge Island.