Shown here is Mr. Belmont during fieldwork, along with the handwritten note he personally wrote on the back of the photograph, describing the occasion in his own words.
John Saltonstall Belmont, devoted husband of Sharon Belmont, passed away just before dawn on October 3, 2026, at his home in Hazel Green, Alabama.
John (along with his identical twin brother, August) was born on September 3, 1939, in New York City, New York, to August Belmont IV and Elizabeth Saltonstall Belmont.
John spent much of his childhood living in Santa Barbara, California, but also attended Groton School in Groton, Massachusetts. While on a Groton School field trip to Montana to study dinosaur fossils, John discovered what would become a lifelong passion for archaeology.
John went on to study archaeology while an undergraduate student at Harvard University and as a graduate student at both the University of Michigan and Harvard University. As an archaeologist, John focused on the mound-building societies along the Mississippi. He was also pivotal in developing a taxonomy of early Native American pottery as a vehicle for identifying population movements and trading practices among early Native American tribes of the south central United States.
John was a devoted Catholic who had a brilliant, questing intellect. He was a passionate reader and writer who, in addition to stints teaching English and literature, would send stacks of the books he loved to friends and family, write literary analysis of authors he adored (Edward Abby, Ernest Hemingway, and Flannery O’Conner to name a few), and quote from memory favorite book passages and verses of poetry.
John was also a committed amateur historian who had an encyclopedic knowledge of ancient and modern American, European, and Asian history. Able to read Latin, John was deeply invested in deepening his faith through the exploration of Catholic texts in their earliest forms. In order to advance his study of Our Lady of Guadalupe, John even taught himself to read Nahuatl, the language of the indigenous community to whom Our Lady appeared and spoke.
While John held strong opinions and beliefs that were not easily gainsaid, he was also a deeply loving, generous, and devoted husband, father, grandfather and friend.
John is survived by his cherished and beloved wife of 34 years, Sharon Belmont; his brother Richard Tower and wife Caroline Tower; his sister-in-law Gita Belmont; his large blended family of seven children (Elizabeth Belmont and husband Matthew Tuchler, Deborah Belmont, Nathaniel Belmont and Emily Taylor, Michael Belmont and wife Virginia, Stephenie Palmer and husband Steven, Stacy Locke and husband William, and Robert Cassista and wife Letishia); 22 grandchildren; and 18 great-grandchildren.
John was a lifelong lover of dachshunds, and is also survived by Dusty, his devoted companion of the past nine years.
John was preceded in death by his parents and his stepfather R. Lockwood Tower (lovingly referred to as “Pop”); his sisters Priscilla Upton and Alice Fisher; and his twin brother August Belmont.
A funeral mass will be held on Tuesday, October 6, 2026 celebrated by Father Alan Mackey at 10am at Our Lady Help of Christians Catholic Church in Huntsville, Alabama. Rosary services will begin at 9:30am at the church. Burial will follow the church service and will be in New Sharon Cemetery in Hazel Green.
Hazel Green Funeral Home is honored to serve the family.
