Jacob Szemela

Legacy Funeral Home

Pat Mentone

Altogether<br/>4307 Vineland Road, Suite H-17-19, Orlando, FL 32811<br/>For more information, visit our website at <a href='www.altogetherfuneral.com'>www.altogetherfuneral.com</a><br/>Copyright © 2025 FPG Intermediate Holdco, LLC

Jacob T. "Jake" Szemela was born in Manchester, New Hampshire to Polish American parents Jacob T. Szemela, I and Emelia Mae (Glod) Szemela. Jake grew up on a modest farm with his Polish speaking grandparents and first learned English when he went to grade school. After completing high school, Jake enlisted in the Coast Guard with his best friend Louie Larikia. Jake set his sights higher than being a farmer and by joining the Coast Guard, he traveled the world. While aboard the Ice Breaker USCGC Eastwind Polar Operations, he participated in search and rescue operations at both the North and South Poles. And he rounded out his six year tour of duty aboard the Coast Guard Cutter, USCGC McCulloch.

 

While on leave, Jake met his first wife Barbara Ann Arney when she was living in Duxbury, Massachusetts. They married and had two children Leigh Ann Dupere and Lori Lynn Szemela. All of whom survive Jake.

Jake has 3 grandchildren, Cory Kress, Samantha Black (Leigh Ann) and Amber Pehrson (Lori) and three great-grandchildren, Myla, Ronan, and Logan, (Samantha). Jake had a second wife Ann, who proceeded Jake in death, and a third ex-wife Lea Rea Szemela who survives Jake. Jake's siblings include an older sister Patricia (deceased), two younger surviving sisters Priscilla Brayson and Gloria Miller, and a living half brother Stanley Szemela, and many nieces and nephews.

 

Jake is one of few who has been to both the North and South Poles and was awarded Coast Guard Medals for his work as a Radarman while performing search and rescue. After retiring from the Coast Guard in 1963, Jake moved his wife and 2 children to Phoenix Arizona, where his wife Barbara's grandparents and sister lived. The family took off cross country from Massachusetts to Arizona, crossing the Rocky Mountains in a Volkswagen Beetle, pulling a one-wheeled trailer holding everything they owned!

 

In Arizona, Jake worked full-time as a technician for Motorola on 52nd Street and McDowell while he first attended Mesa Community College and then Arizona State University, completing an Associates degree at MCC and then his Bachelor's of Science in Mechanical Engineering. While working at Moto 52nd Street, Jake codesigned the first liquid crystal displays and had multiple patents which belonged to the company since they were developed while working there.

 

Motorola was still paying Jake technician's wages even after he graduated BS ME. And in 1978 a "head-hunter" for National Semiconductor discovered what Jake was developing and what he was being paid. A great offer was made and Jake and his third wife Lea, moved to Salt Lake City, Utah taking all of his LCD designs with him. Motorola had failed to have Jake sign a non-disclosure agreement when he was hired as a technician and could not prevent him from taking his designs and technology with him! National Semiconductor produced some of the first liquid crystal displays and Motorola abandoned the idea!

 

Jake's Engineering career was varied and always interesting. He lived up and down the California Coast during the 1990's working for several start up companies. Jake developed other technologies during his career and several companies hold patents for his work.

 


One interesting project Jake worked on was the design of the photovoltaic cells for the Space Station Freedom. Until funding was cut when the Gramm-Rudman Act was enacted. The photovoltaic cells for space plans didn't come to fruition until much later and by other engineers and for a different space station.

 

Jake learned to shoot rifles, shotguns, and handguns at a young age, living on the family farm in New Hampshire. He was a true lover of animals and pets, having a pet flying squirrel until she was ready to have babies, so he turned her free to start her first family. Jake was a very good natural shot and hunted small animals to feed to his squirrel. He scored high at the target entry classes when he enlisted in the Coast Guard and his drill Sergeant wanted to know where he learned to shoot so well. His father used to take Jake hunting and taught him how to shoot, so he had a lot of practice early on.

 

Jake continued his love of animals and providing for his family by hunting deer, elk, and local birds like quail, dove, and even wild turkeys in Arizona. The family ate game that Jake eloquently prepared. He was a very good cook, something he learned from his father Jacob T. Szemela, I, who was a cook in the Army during WWII. And Jake always had at least one bird dog by his side. These were not just working dogs, they were always members of the family and treated as such. Jake's love of animals and his great cooking skills were passed on to both of his daughters. There was always a prolific vegetable and herb garden in Jake's backyard when he lived in Chandler, and he and Lori enjoyed cooking fresh vegetables from it, especially for Sunday family dinners.

 

Jake being a Mechanical Engineer, loved working on his cars but his pride and joy was his 1943 Willy's Jeep. His Jeep touted a small block V-8 engine, a 302 Ford barely fit into the small engine bay. It also had a 4-barrel Holly Carburetor, Hurst Competition+ shifter, and Jake modified the Willy's for power steering. Lori sure enjoyed driving it in high school!

 

Jake's hunting buddies were engineers, construction managers, and engineering managers. Most of them worked in the high tech microelectronics field, his group was a wild bunch indeed. Jake was a very social engineer, a rare bird for sure! His hunting group all had Jeeps that had big engines and even bigger tires so they could navigate the most remote areas of Arizona to hunt game. They stayed connected with CB radios, there was never a lack of state-of-the-art technology among this group.

 

Another hobby of Jake's was flying small planes. Jake was instrument rated but never completed his sight ratings as health issues precluded him from completing his license. His life-long friend Gary Schneider, an Electrical Engineer that Jake met at Moto 52nd Street, had several small planes. Gary made and sold precision gun barrels and Jake often accompanied him to deliver them to sharp shooting competitions across the country.

 

When Jake retired from engineering, he wanted to stay busy. He started and ran a handyman business performing electrical, mechanical, structural, and plumbing repairs for commercial and private businesses and homeowners until a head injury caused Jake to get Dementia. Jake remained a loving father and remembered who his children were his whole life.


 

Dementia changed Jake and the stories of his past became more colorful than they actually were but he was still an amazing man until his passing on May 12th, 2022. Jake's sister Priscilla (Poppy) always looked up to Jake who helped care for her in their younger years and she always called him her hero. Jake will be remembered fondly and missed dearly by family and friends that loved him.

 

In his honor and for his love of animals and his Service to his Country, we are asking for donations to the American Service Animal Society at dogs4vets.org or to your favorite Dementia organization. We'd like to give special thanks to Mimosa Springs Dementia Assisted Living Facility for providing Jake with a loving home for his last few years. And to Aegis Hospice for their support of Jake and his family.

When words can't fully express what we want to say, sometimes a small gift can. Visit our Memorial Store for personalized gifts, keepsake jewelry and to plant a memorial tree.

We use cookies to improve your browsing experience and analyze site traffic.
<privacyLink>Privacy Policy</privacyLink>.

<firstParagraph>We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze how you use this website, store your preferences, and provide the content and advertisements that are relevant to you. These cookies will only be stored in your browser with your prior consent.</firstParagraph><secondParagraph>You can choose to enable or disable some or all of these cookies but disabling some of them may affect your browsing experience.</secondParagraph>

<firstParagraph>We use cookies to help you navigate efficiently and perform certain functions. You will find detailed information about all cookies under each consent category below.</firstParagraph><secondParagraph>The cookies that are categorized as 'Necessary' are stored on your browser as they are essential for enabling the basic functionalities of the site.</secondParagraph>

Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with customized advertisements based on the pages you visited previously and to analyze the effectiveness of the ad campaigns.

Analytics

Functional cookies help perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collecting feedback, and other third-party features.

Functional

Necessary cookies are required to enable the basic features of this site, such as providing secure log-in or adjusting your consent preferences. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable data.

Necessary

Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.

Performance

Customize Cookie Preferences

Verification Successful!

New Message

The following files could not be uploaded

Ways you can honor {memorialName}'s memory:

Donation Link

Upcoming Event

Featured Mementos

Welcome Message

Select an item to highlight

Add a highlighted item

Customize which items you’d like to highlight on the memorial

Create Account

Become a Keeper

As a free {brandName} user, you will only be able to make 5 photos and videos public.

As a free {brandName} user, only the first five (5) Mementos are visible to page visitors. You can change which Mementos are public by dragging and dropping a photo or video to one of the first five positions. Upgrading to {brandName} Plus will make all 10 Mementos selected visible to the public.

All Mementos

This option is only available to Keeper Plus users.

To allow yourself and the rest of the community to view all images and videos, and to enable everyone to download their own copy of these mementos, upgrade your account to Keeper Plus.

This memento is not visible to visitors

Your community has posted {itemCount} more pictures and videos that honor {firstName}'s memory. To view them all, and to enable everyone to download their own copy of each, this account will need to upgrade to Keeper Plus.

View all images and videos with Keeper Plus

Our Obituary Assistant helps you craft a meaningful life story in minutes. Review and edit every detail, and unlock more features with Keeper Plus.

Obituary Assistant

Spend as much time as you need working on your Memorial page before it is visible to the public, and much more, when you upgrade to Keeper Plus.

Save Page as Draft

Create unlimited event pages and unlock a suite of powerful features to help you seamlessly coordinate event details, invites, and more when you upgrade to Keeper Plus.

Event

Create a full picture of your loved one’s community and add unlimited family and friends to Loved Ones when you upgrade to Keeper Plus.

Loved One

Create unlimited Memorials — and unlock unlimited images and videos, event pages, and advanced privacy settings — to help you keep memories alive when you upgrade to Keeper Plus.

Memorial Page

Add unlimited Stories to highlight the all the things that made your loved one unique, from milestones, images, albums, documents, locations, and much more.

Highlight Stories

Upgrading to Keeper Plus means you can add additional Keepers to help you gather Mementos and tributes, approve content, build out a family tree, and tell {firstName}' story on Keeper.

Invite Keepers with Keeper Plus

Upload and display unlimited photos and videos, use unlimited Story templates to highlight key moments, and allow friends and family to download their own copies when you upgrade to Keeper Plus. 

Better Mementos with Keeper Plus

To access memorial related configurations that control the display of the banner upgrade to Keeper Plus.

This configuration  is not available on your current plan

Create a meaningful link path to add a personal touch to {firstName}'s memorial.

Custom Memorial link

Gift Messages

SENDING AS A GIFT?

Cart

About 1-800 Flowers

"Flowers were beautiful and they arrived in time before the funeral. Thank you and will purchase more in the future.!"

Hearing Tears

"Beautiful flowers, I've always enjoyed sending them to my love ones for sympathy and they have always love them very much Thanks for making people feel good when receiving them."

Sympathy

"This was true to the photo and good to know family took arrangement after the service."

Beautiful arrangement.  Perfect size for service.

Some of the great things our customers say about us

We're here to make it a little easier, with thoughtful gifts for the services & home, along with expert advice on how to be there during a difficult time.

Flowers

Gift Baskets

Express Your Deepest Sympathy

About Us

Perfect Condolence Gift

No one is meant to grieve alone

Peace and love

Product is made, packaged, and sent with love

Keepsakes

How to add your gift message

Packaging Information

Shipping information

Add a Personalized Charm to the Ornament:

Other Keepsakes

Install KeeperQR onto any headstone, urn, or other memorial in minutes.

Install

Use your phone or tablet to scan the unique code — no other tools required!

Scan

All three of our elegant KeeperQR designs are printed using durable, weather-resistant aluminum designed for indoors and outdoor use on headstones and urns, memorial benches and trees, or other monuments to your loved one’s life

Built to Last

Get <discount>50% off</discount> Keeper Plus with your KeeperQR purchase

Keeper Basic

Learn About Our Plans

Connect the physical and digital worlds to share your loved one’s life story with friends and family, no matter where they are.

KeeperQR Memorial QR Code Plaques

Planting a memorial tree or bereavement tree is a unique, environmentally conscious way to pay tribute and honor the memory of your loved one. Keeper Memorials is supporting American Forests to plant whitebark pine trees as well as thornscrub trees in select regions of the US and Canada.

Memorial Trees

KeeperQR is designed to pair seamlessly with a Keeper digital memorial. Use our FREE intuitive tools to create biographies, maps, and timelines, share photos and videos, and more with customizable features built to commemorate your loved one’s life’s story.

Powered by Keeper

Lifetime without any hidden costs or subscription traps

One time payment

Keeper is SOC2 compliant, keeping your memories safe and secure.

Data protection guaranteed

We bring your QR Codes to any corner of the globe

Worldwide Shipping

Our durable and beautiful QR code plaques create seamless connection between your loved one’s physical memorial and their digital memorial, allowing visitors to their final resting place instant access to their life legacy.

Memorial.

Honor their memory, share their story

A KeeperQR is a weather-resistant plaque with a custom QR code that links directly to your loved one’s digital memorial. When placed on a headstone, urn, bench, or tree, it allows friends and family to scan and view their life story instantly

What is a KeeperQR?

They’re built to withstand outdoor elements and adhere to most surfaces.

Where can I place the KeeperQR?

How does it work?

Frequently asked questions

KeeperQR

E-Certificate Design

Plant Memorial Trees as a Living Tribute

BRAZIL

CANADA

FLORIDA

OREGON

Memorial Project Reach

Memorial trees start at {price} per tree, with discounts for multiple trees

Our Commitment

Gift Baskets & Food

Keeper Plus

QR Plaques

Keepers Featured Products

A Greener Way to Remember

Learn about our Partners:

Help Us Complete Your Order

Remembrance Store

Through your unique link, your client can sign up for Keeper and create a Memorial for a loved one. When the Memorial page is completed by the family, it will appear on your microsite and website. You will be the main Keeper Administrator of the Memorial, along with the family member that created the page.

Invite Your Clients to Create a Memorial

Invite Families

Your Email Notifications

Notifications

Email Unsubscribe Settings

Other Settings

With your active Keeper PLUS subscription, you get unlimited access to a suite of powerful features:

Allow visitors to download a local copy of all images and videos.

Download Media

Create a custom and meaningful URL, unique to your loved one, for each Memorial page.

Editable URL

Plan public or private events and invite your loved ones.

Event Pages

Add images and create profile pages to illustrate the history and genealogy of your loved one.

Family Tree

Invite unlimited administrators to help you manage every Memorial page you have.

Keeper Administrators

Visitors enjoy unrestricted access to all uploaded images and videos.

Unlimited Media

Create unlimited Memorial pages for your loved ones.

Memorial Pages

You will be able to upload Full HD videos instead of embedded links.

Video Uploading

Your Profile

Add a business user

Edit a business user

Are you sure you want to delete these users from these brands? You will need to manually add these users again.

If the user is a part of multiple brands, you will have to delete the user from each one individually

Delete Users from Brands?

Users Settings & Notifications

Users

Are you sure you want to delete these users? This action will revoke their privileges across all brands.

Are you sure you want to delete this user? This action will revoke their privileges across all brands.

Delete Users from all Brands?

Delete User from Brand?

Are you sure you want to delete {totalDeletes} from this user?

Delete Roles from this User?

Are you sure you want to delete this user from this brand? You will need to manually add this user again.

Delete User from this Brand?

Requires users to confirm their email every time they would like to share a tribute on a Memorial page.

When Email Tribute Validation is turned OFF, Guest users do not need to confirm their email address before their tribute is published.

When Email Tribute Validation is turned ON, Guest users will need to confirm their email address before their tribute is published. They will receive an email with a confirmation link they must click.

Requires users to confirm their email only the first time they would like to share a tribute on a Memorial page.

Email Tribute Validation

If Flagged Content is turned OFF, content that has been flagged will remain public until they have been Approved or Removed from the Requests Center.

If Flagged Content is turned ON, content that has been flagged will be hidden until they have been Approved or Removed from the Requests Center.

Hide Flagged Content

Language

Email Notifications

Are you sure you want to delete the Memorial for {name}? This action will permanently remove the memorial from the system.

Delete Memorial?

When Memorial Request Moderation is turned OFF, Memorials will automatically be published.

When Memorial Request Moderation is turned ON, Memorials will only be published if and when you approve them. Memorials can be published or deleted in the Requests center.

Memorial Request Moderation

Moderation Settings

This will permanently delete your account. The business account, and business page will not be deleted. To deactivate your account, there must be another admin user assigned to your organization.

Are you sure you want to deactivate this account?

When Override Tribute Moderation is turned OFF, the tribute moderation settings on Memorial pages will be hidden and other Keepers cannot override the tribute moderation settings specified by your organization.

When Override Tribute Moderation is turned ON, other Keepers can view and change the tribute moderation settings of the Memorial pages they manage. (Each Memorial page will default to the organization’s tribute moderation setting upon creation.) 

Override Tribute Moderation

If the AI Content Moderation is OFF, text areas containing profane language will be published.  Tributes can however be flagged and removed at any time.

If the AI Content Moderation is ON, text areas containing profane language will not be published and the user will receive an error message.

AI Content Moderation

When Tribute Moderation is turned OFF, Tributes will automatically be published. Once published, users can flag inappropriate or spam content. You can instantly delete any Tributes published on a Memorial that you administer.

When Tribute Moderation is turned ON, Tributes will only be published if and when you approve them. Tributes can be approved or rejected in the Requests center.

Jacob Jake Szemela Obituary | Altogether