John Edward Eliason

John E. Eliason, 88 years old, of Coventry, RI, passed away peacefully in his sleep on May 9, 2023. Jack was born September 28, 1934, during the Great Depression. In high school Jack was a captain on the Lasalle Academy hockey team. Later, he graduated from Dean Academy (Dean College). Jack was a United States Marine. He was also a singer in the Marine Orchestra. While stationed in Okinawa in 1958 he sang on the Bob Hope Show which was nationally televised. He was a true entertainer at heart and loved to make people laugh and smile. If you ever met him and he liked you, you would have heard one of his stories. He was one of the great storytellers. In his professional life, Jack was employed at the investment firm Hornblower and Weeks in Providence. Later, Governor Noel appointed him to the Governor’s Justice Commission as a Juvenile Justice Specialist. Lastly, he collected data from anglers for the NOAA Fisheries’ Recreational Information Program. He was a true Rhode Island Sportsman. From an early age fishing and hunting was his passion. When he was a young teenager, he would travel from Providence with a friend to flyfish for trout in Wyoming and Richmond, RI. Jack was a mentor that started a tradition of flyfishing that will continue for generations with family and friends. As early as the 1940s, Jack was a passionate advocate for catch and release to keep fisheries healthy and sustainable. Not only did he love to fish for trout he was also one of the pioneers of saltwater flyfishing in Narragansett Bay in the 1950s. He loved to travel around the world with his son, Brian, to fish. Jack continued to flyfish into his late eighties and could often be found on Wood River. He was preceded in death by his son John, his granddaughter Stephanie, his brothers Arthur and Norman, his sisters Mary Murphy and Ann Youngs and his parents Arthur and Helen. He is survived by his brother Donald, his former wife Geraldine (LaPolla) Hamilton of East Greenwich and their children, daughter Leslie Lusi and her husband Armand, son Brian and his wife Natalie, daughter Donna Harvey and her husband Oliver, grandchildren Annie, Madeline, Amelia, Eric, Nicholas, James and Dryden, great-grandchildren Ella and Leighton. Our family and friends will deeply miss Jack every day. We shall carry his memory in our hearts forever. He would always say that one day he would be in that “trout stream in the sky.” Tight lines, Grandpa Jack. Burial with Military Honors will be held Wednesday, May 24, 2023 at 12:30 PM in the Rhode Island Veterans Memorial Cemetery, Exeter, RI.