John C. Bellis

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Remembering John

It is with great sadness that the family of John Cornelis Bellis announces his passing at the age of 80 years. John was born to Cornelis and Adriana Bellis (Van Duyn) in The Haag, Netherlands, September 15, 1942. The family immigrated to the United States in 1949 where he first attended school in Manteca, CA while living with sponsoring relatives. Shortly after, the family moved to Ripon, CA where he attended grammar and high school prior to joining the Air Force for four years in 1960. He spent most of his time in the Air Force as an Airborne Radar instructor in Biloxi, Mississippi. He also had the opportunity of being assigned to an Air Rescue Squadron that flew out of Goose Bay Labrador covering most of the Atlantic seaboard.

After his discharge from active duty, John attended Modesto Junior College where he met his future wife, Kathy, and they were married in 1965. They moved to San Jose, California, where John went to work for the IBM Corporation. They had three children, Laurie, Julie, and Debra. In 1975 they moved to Gilroy, CA where they lived for the next 16 years. John and Kathy worked towards getting all three girls into college at the same time. After the girls’ college graduations and weddings, the grandchildren began arriving.

After the 1984 Morgan Hill and the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquakes, they decided that moving out of the Bay Area was something they wanted to pursue. After working in engineering, programming, and data center management in the Bay Area there was an opportunity to move to the Sacramento area to work on a new IBM contract with the State of California. In 1992 they moved to Granite Bay and eventually in 2000 they moved to Springfield in Rocklin, CA. After a 41-year career in I.T. John decided to retire only to end up starting a small business selling hardware and software to the State of California. After two years, retirement was in earnest. John and Kathy traveled numerous times to Canada, Hawaii, Mexico, and many European countries. On one of the trips, he visited the Netherlands where he and his family lived before immigrating to the States.

John enjoyed playing golf and worked in the background on various clubs at the Springfield facility and would always help others, especially when it came to computers. John was also a member of the Elks for over 53 years. He loved listening to Willie Nelson and bootleg radio station KPIG. With his I.T. background, John programmed everything in their house to Alexa and was always fascinated with the newest technology. He was very knowledgeable about many things and was the “go to” for repairs and consumer reports questions by his daughters.

John was most proud of his successful marriage of almost 58 years, raising three great daughters, providing for his family, and having a good life. He was an amazing husband, father, grandpa, son, brother, uncle, cousin, and friend to so many. John’s favorite places were being close to the beach or mountains and anywhere with a view. He especially enjoyed watching the beautiful sunsets from their home.  

John is preceded in death by his parents and a sister, Janny (Vander Wys). He is survived by his wife, Kathy; daughters Laurie Larrigan (Garth) of Yuba City, Julie Bellis and Debra Bellis of Rocklin, and his grandchildren, Hannah Larrigan, Brenna Larrigan, Deven Hernandez, Ariana Hernandez, and Ryan Bort.

John will be greatly missed, and his strong determination, dedication to his family, and his positive attitude will be remembered forever.

Family and friends are welcome to attend a Celebration of Life which will be held on Saturday, June 24, at 11:00 a.m., at The Gables at Springfield, 2801 Springfield Drive, Rocklin, California 95765.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in John's honor to The American Cancer Society