Bill Jackson, the 98-year-old founder of Bill Jackson’s Shop for Adventurein Pinellas Park, FL, died last week.
His son, Darry Jackson, will continue to run the business on a tree-covered, five-acre lot near a a local park.
Since Bill Jackson founded the business in 1946 as an army surplus store, Bill Jackson's Shop for Adventure has morphed into, a 40,000-square-foot store that has become a meeting place for local outdoor enthusiasts and a destination for tourists.
Today the store features an indoor swimming pool for SCUBA and paddlesports instruction, an artificial “snow deck” customers can use to try out skis, an indoor pistol range and four classrooms. It has become home to several local ski and kayaking clubs and hosts a triathlon expo. The elder Jackson continued to come to work as recently as 2013, his son recently told SGB magazine.
The local ABC News affiliate reports that Bill Jackson helped popularize SCUBA in Florida in the 1950s, according to a tribute by the local ABC News affiliate.
“Grassroots Outdoor Alliance – and, really, the entire outdoor industry – has lost an iconic figure and role model,” the Grassroots Outdoor Association wrote on its blog. Bill Jackson's Shop for Adventure has been a member of Grassroots since 2007 and the buying group urged those wishing to leave memories or share their condolences to vist the retailer's Facebook page.
