Jacob F.S. Koontz

Jacob Franklin Snyder Koontz, age 79 of Plant City, Florida died Tuesday, May 24, 2011. He is survived by his wife, Ruth Koontz; sister, Kasey Epperson; three children, Mary Stevens (Tim), Catherine Martin (Jim) and J.F. Koontz (Cheryl); five grandchildren, Nathan and Matthew Albright, Amber Schmidt, Faren Bryant and Kristen Koontz; and one great- grandchild. Jacob was born during the Great Depression and spent his childhood in a semi nomadic experience. The disability of his father due to an injury in World War I made him a responsible breadwinner for his family at an early age. After graduating from high school at the age of 17, he enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard, where he served faithfully for two decades, engaging in rescue missions and considerably more interesting tales of unknown missions, which he was never tired of telling his family. In 1954, while stationed in Miami, Florida, he met and married Ruth Mathias, who was the only modest woman (according to him) on Miami Beach. together, between 1956 and 1960, they had three children in three cities, St. Petersburg, Florida, Atlanta, Georgia and Charleston, South Carolina, as his Coast Guard duties kept him in a semi-nomadic lifestyle until 1967. He then moved from New England to Plant City, Florida, where he lived the rest of his days dabbling in gardening, growing fruits such as grapes, limes, lemons, kumquats and mulberries, and making wine. After the Coast Guard, he spent 35 years as a sewing machine repairman for Singer Sewing Machine Company, first in Lakeland, Florida and then in St. Petersburg. One of his fondest pastimes was to entertain friends and family with a rum and Coke, some steaks he grilled on his homemade steak pit and endless stories and speculations, of which he was very fond. He is remembered as both a steady and loyal man with an eye for order and discipline, a refusal to complain about life's suffering, as well as a tendency to have strong opinions and a fierce temper, qualities he passed on to many of surviving descendants. A celebrations of life ceremony will take place 2-5 p.m. May 29, 2011 at Plant City Elks Lodge at 1501 Alexander Street.

Arrangements under the direction of Wells Memorial Funeral Home, Plant City, FL.