Financial Consultant Majored in Music

Cohasset, MA - John L. Kornet, Jr., died peacefully on January 8, 2023, having succumbed to Parkinson’s disease, decades after surviving Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and many years after beating prostate cancer. A lover of music who had learned a dozen instruments in his lifetime, he passed to the sound of his sister Linda playing piano while family gathered beside him.

Born and raised in Bethlehem,

PA, and later Ridgewood, NJ, John attended Valley Forge Military Academy, where he played saxophone in the marching band. At Dartmouth College, he sang with a Capella group and the glee club before graduating in 1967; two years later, he earned his M.B.A. at the Tuck School of Business.

John found joy woodworking, running, tending the yard, and being on the water in the sun. He was a fan of Jimmy Buffet, hard pretzels, Heath Bar Klondike bars, golden retrievers, and trains of all sizes, from those he could board to tiny HO gauge models. He loved being a father and making people laugh. A tall man, he was not afraid to clasp his children’s hands and skip down the aisles of the supermarket with high knees and a serious expression.

John began his career in financial services at Bethlehem Steel. A move to Mass Financial Services in Boston brought the family to Cohasset in 1976. He worked as a financial consultant with Mercer-Meidinger, Merrill Lynch, Paine Webber, and Montreal-based Brockhouse and Cooper, among others. An entrepreneurial spirit led him to found Global Perspectives, which facilitated investment alternatives for pension fund managers, and the Giraffe Group, to represent managers who were “head and shoulders above the rest.” Before retiring in 2017, he focused his efforts on qualitative analysis of emerging markets.

John is survived by his sister, Linda Kornet Chisari and brother-in-law, Dr. Frank Chisari, of Del Mar, CA; his wife, Diana Davis Kornet, of Cohasset; their son, John L. Kornet, III and daughterin-law, Rebecca Michaels Kornet of Medfield, MA; their daughter, Allison Mack Kornet; and son-in-law, Juan Antonio Ruiz-Hau of Winchester, MA; their daughter, Abigail Davis Kornet, of Cohasset; beloved grandchildren, Jack, Rachel, and Sam Kornet, Sydney and Josie Ruiz, and Antonio RuizNokes; and cherished cousins and nieces and nephews in Hawaii, Alaska, California, Georgia, Mississippi, and the Northeast.

A Celebration of Life will be held at First Parish Unitarian Universalist in Cohasset on January 28, at 2 p.m. Donations in his memory may be made to the Michael J. Fox Foundation or the Diana B. Kornet 1993 Memorial Scholarship Fund at Dartmouth College.