John Stewart Bessey, 59, of Reston, a retired aerospace physicist-engineer and landscape photographer, died May 27 of Waldenstrom's macroglobulinemia at the Capital Hospice Inpatient Center in Arlington.

Dr. Bessey was born in 1949 in Norman, Okla., and grew up in Laramie, Wyo. He graduated from the University of California, San Diego in 1971. He studied astronomy at the University of Wyoming before receiving a Ph.D. in physics at the University of Arizona in Tucson in 1977.

Dr. Bessey began a career in aerospace in 1978 with OCLI in Santa Rosa, Calif. He received an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley and, with three friends, founded La Crema Winery, which was later bought out by Kendall-Jackson.

In 1985 Dr. Bessey moved to southern California to work for Hughes Aircraft, and in 1987 joined TRW as a senior engineer. He also was the U.S. representative for a French optical fiber company, LeVerre Fluore, and founded Seiche River Photonics.

He loved classical music and photography. After he retired in 2004, he moved to Santa Fe, N.M., to devote his time to landscape photography.

In 2006 he married Shirley Nagelschmidt of Reston. He and his wife traveled extensively.

While in Reston, Dr. Bessey was active in the Greater Reston Arts Center (GRACE) and the Arts Council of Fairfax County. For the past two years his photographs hung in juried art exhibitions sponsored by the Arts Council.

Dr. Bessey’s first marriage to Margot Gieselman ended in divorce.

Survivors also include a brother, Richard, of New York City and Raleigh, N.C.