Jennifer Bell’s admiration for her late father-in-law is palpable. Speaking from her home in Toronto, her voice is filled with emotion as she describes the late Stavrogerasimos “Jerry” Katsouris. Soon into the conversation, it’s clear Jerry was indeed someone special. It’s also easy to surmise that Jennifer is pretty remarkable herself; intelligent, gracious, and generous.

“I grew up surrounded by a family full of academics, ornithologists and so on,” says Jennifer, brushing over her own impressive education and career as a policy consultant. “My father-in-law wasn’t like that. He wasn’t a person some would think of as a nature lover – not the Roger Tory Petersen type, but a regular guy living in the suburbs.”

“His wife, my mother-in-law, might be considered less of a nature enthusiast, but for Jerry, she made allowances,” chuckles Jennifer. “For instance, the front yard of their house was manicured and strictly maintained, but around the back, which opened into Crown land, it was a whole other story. It was a place that belonged to Jerry, in his own words, ‘to be left alone for nature.’”

Like the discrepancy in landscaping, there was much more than what meets the eye with Jerry. Although the proudest of Nova Scotians, he immigrated to Canada as a young adult from Kefalonia, an island off the West coast of Greece. There, the terrain was more rugged and forested than other, more familiar areas of the country. It was also where Jerry, in his youth, experienced trepidacious circumstances, including the deaths of his father and two young brothers, his family’s financial ruin, and civil war. In 1943, his hometown witnessed the massacre of 5,000 Italian prisoners of war by Nazi soldiers. In 1953, it was levelled by the Ionian Earthquake.

In search of a way to provide for his mother and sisters, Jerry left Greece on a merchant ship bound for an adventure-filled path that eventually anchored him in Montreal. He met his wife, and the pair moved to Pictou County, where he worked as a shopkeeper but spent weekends in the woods or on the Northumberland Coast. His son, Andreas, and Jennifer fell for each other while studying at King’s University in Halifax. The two married, and their daughter, Sophia, was much beloved by her grandfather.

“He would spend hours with her, looking out the kitchen window at all the wildlife making the most of his backyard. I have this photo where she’s standing on the kitchen counter as a toddler, and he’s helping her spot all the birds”.

When Jerry passed away in June, it was Jennifer’s idea to select the Nova Scotia Nature Trust to direct memorial gifts in her father-in-law’s honour. “Being from Ontario, I wasn’t entirely familiar with the organization, so I contacted a friend, an American ornithologist, to ask her opinion. She confirmed they were doing excellent work in the province,” explains Jennifer.

The Nova Scotia Nature Trust is so very thankful to Jennifer and her family for entrusting us to be part of Jerry’s legacy. His love for nature, his family, and Nova Scotia will surely endure, especially in those lucky to have known him best, like Jennifer.

Despite her eloquence, the greatness of Jennifer’s adoration and appreciation for Jerry seems, in the end, ineffable. As with most beautiful things, it’s likely beyond words and easier found hidden around back, in those profound places left alone for nature.

Learn more about “In Memory” gifts to the Nature Trust.