The funeral of Brian Sack, the man who pioneered Britain's first country house hotel with his late partner Francis Coulson, is being held at the weekend.
Sack, owner of Sharrow Bay in the Lake District, died of a stroke on New Year's Day.
He died at the Royal Free hospital in London, where he was being cared for after suffering a fall on Christmas Eve. The fall was not related to his death.
Sack was 78 and this would have been his 50th year at Sharrow Bay, on the shores of Ullswater. Coulson, Sharrow Bay's founder, died in February 1998, also aged 78.
After Coulson's death, Sack indicated that he would leave the hotel to managing director Nigel Lightburn, who has worked at Sharrow Bay for 28 years.
Lightburn said: "Until Mr Sack's will is read we cannot officially comment." He added: "Many of the staff here looked upon him as a father figure and it really is a great, great loss."
In the year Coulson died, he and Sack received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Caterer & Hotelkeeper Awards. It was one of the most emotional moments at the annual ceremony.
Peter Herbert, owner of Gravetye Manor hotel, near East Grinstead, West Sussex, was one of many admirers of Sack and Coulson. He said: "Brian Sack and Francis Coulson could rightly claim to have founded the genre of the country house hotel, whose ranks now number several hundreds across the UK."
A memorial service for Sack will be held at Carlisle Cathedral on Saturday (12 January) at noon, followed by a private funeral, for family only, at a local church.
The memorial service for Coulson in 1998 attracted more than 1,000 people. A similar turnout is expected for Sack's.
Sharrow Bay is closed for its winter break and is undergoing refurbishment. It is due to reopen on 1 March.