RANCHO MIRAGE, CALIFORNIA: On March 9, 2024 Jack Diviney passed away in Rancho Mirage, California and the world lost a true, creative, imaginative and interesting soul.
John, "Jack" Diviney was born in Lyons, NY. He was the only child of Dorothy (Carroll) Diviney and Carl Diviney. Jack’s father was in the United States Marines when he met his wife to be, Dorothy. They were Married in the fall of 1941. Jack’s father was killed in action on New Britain Island in the South Pacific in December 1943. Dorothy never remarried and dove right into the responsibility of raising a son as a single parent.
Jack grew up in Newark, NY. As a youngster he was always on the go, and with his bicycle, fishing pole and baseball mitt he seemed to have all he needed to keep him occupied and out of trouble. Jack enrolled at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio in 1960 and graduated in 1964 with a degree in Business Administration. Jack’s first job after college was with Bausch & Lomb Corp. in Rochester, New York. After three years there, he changed careers and became a Registered Representative Stock Broker with Bache & Co. in Rochester. That job lasted for three years and while he was stockbroker he and some friends and investors bought a franchise restaurant in Rochester. That investment set the stage for Jack as far as a future career. He really liked the food and beverage business and he left the stock brokerage business in order to develop several more similar restaurants in the Rochester, NY area. Eventually, he sold his interest in the restaurants and took some time off to travel and visit the west coast. There, one day in San Francisco, he met the love of his life, Trish Hancox. Trish was from London, England. They got married the following year in London and moved to Rochester and Jack again got in the business of building and running restaurants. They both loved San Francisco where they met and lived for a while. The lure of the city by the bay proved irresistible and they sold out everything in New York and moved to San Francisco in 1978 where Jack (of course) bought a bar and restaurant in the Marina District of San Francisco. He called it "The Chestnut Street Grill" and he had a successful run, operating it for 10 years before he sold it.
When he wasn’t working in his restaurant, Jack and Trish loved to travel, ski in the Sierras, staying in their vacation home in Lake Tahoe and patronizing the casinos there. Jack always had time for a game of golf, studying and investing in the stock market and studying American military history, especially the Civil War. He was especially proud of his Irish Ancestry and was thrilled when he learned he was eligible to become an Irish citizen, which he did. The thing that jack probably enjoyed the most was just hanging around with friends and having dinner and a cocktail or two and engaging in some lively conversation. In 2003 they bout a "Winter Get Away" home at Monterey Country Club in Palm Desert and for the next 15 years they split their time between their home in Sonoma County and their Palm Desert home. Finally, in 2020 they sold "up North" and bought their permanent home in the Del Webb Community in Rancho Mirage.
Jack is survived by Trish and numerous friends and family in the US, England, Ireland and Australia. He will be greatly missed. A Celebration fo Life will be held in the near future.
