John Christopher Scott, 77, of Cobleskill, NY, passed away peacefully on October 5, 2026, at home after a brief battle with lung cancer. A celebration of life service will take place next summer.

Born in Gary, Indiana, on November 7th, 1948, John grew up around the world, spending time in Saudi Arabia and Switzerland, and graduated from West Yellowstone High School in West Yellowstone, Montana.

He then served in the Army as a tunnel rat during the Vietnam War. John was a jack-of-all-trades and worked in various jobs, including at a laundry soap factory in California, a rattlesnake catcher in Montana, and a shrimper out of Brownsville, Texas.

John was also a polyglot, fluent in Arabic, French, and Spanish. After these varied odd jobs, he graduated with a bachelor's degree and a master's degree and worked for three decades as an IT professional (mostly for IBM) around the world and had made Cobleskill his home for the last two and a half decades. He worked on various interesting projects such as the Y2K transition and early facial recognition software.

John also loved skydiving and had over 500 jumps and met and married his wife through that hobby. John also loved eating breakfast at diners. John loved taking his family on road trips, including many out west and south, to Florida.

He is survived by his wife Kathryn; his sisters Suzie, Tina, and Michaela; his children Harry, Ella and her husband Moses, and Mathilda and her husband Rishav; and his granddaughter Eva.

John will be remembered for his kindness, his humor, his sense of adventure, his curiosity, and love for his family. His jokes and wisdom were gifts to everyone who knew him.

Donations in his memory can be made to Marathon for Better Life, PO Box 268, Warnerville, NY 12187.