Veteran and businessman John Jennings dies

Serving as host to guests who had literally been out of this world is one of many milestones in the life of John Prentice Jennings of Mill Neck.

Jennings entertained the crew of the Apollo 13 lunar mission in his Mill Neck home in June 1970, fought in the Korean War and later led big-game safari excursions in southern Africa.

Jennings died on May 30 of cancer. He was 81.

The son of a chief executive and president of Mobil Oil Corp., he was born in Manhattan. He grew up in Mill Neck, attended the Greenvale School in Greenvale and graduated from Fountain Valley School, a boarding school in Colorado Springs. He then enrolled at the University of Virginia.

But a desire for discipline tugged at him and he left the college after two years. He joined the Marines and fought in the Korean War, said his son, Brewster Jennings.

John Jennings rose to the rank of staff sergeant. He was so accurate in his marksmanship that he broke the Camp Lejeune sharpshooter record and was the long-standing top skeet shot at Piping Rock Club in Locust Valley.

After the war, Jennings worked in advertising in Manhattan but soon joined Grumman Aerospace in Bethpage. At Grumman, Jennings was assistant to the president and was heavily involved in the firm's role in the building of the lunar module, his son, Brewster, said.

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"He was of the highest integrity," Brewster Jennings said. "He had tremendous wit and charm about him. I know that whether he was talking to the president of the United States or someone who was at the other end of the spectrum, he made everybody he talked to feel like they were the most important person in the room."

Jennings and his wife, Cornelia (Nina) Clark Jennings, hosted astronauts Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert and Fred W. Haize at their home after the mission.

In the late 1970s, Jennings explored his passion for hunting and founded Hunters Africa, where he served as a guide for big-game safaris in Botswana.

Besides his wife and son, he is survived by daughters Debra Gillette and Wendy Hall of Hilton Head, S.C., Leigh Judson of San Francisco, Edith McElroy of Newport, R.I., Katharine Cushing of Manhattan, Lee DiPietro of Ruxton, Md., Nini Marceca of upstate Brewster, and 18 grandchildren.

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A memorial service will be held for Jennings at noon Thursday at the Piping Rock Club in Locust Valley. In lieu of flowers, his family requests that donations be made to Fountain Valley School at 6155 Fountain Valley School Rd. in Colorado Springs.