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Friends and Classmates,
I am so sorry to report that our good friend and classmate Jack Peters has died after a long battle with colon and bladder cancer. I was able to visit him at the rehab center a week or so before he passed in early June. He was alert and anxious to return home which he did before he passed. He is survived by his wife Mary, three children, six grandchildren, and his sisters Linda and Marilyn.
Jack’s family has planned a Celebration of Life service for Sunday, September 10, from 11:30 am to 3 pm (with a short program at 12:30) at the Lake Forest Park Civic Club, 17301 Beach Drive NE, Lake Forest Park, WA 98055.
Paul — I hope you can post this message on our East High class website.
Since I have not seen any formal obituary, I am providing my few words of remembrance here.
Jack was my oldest friend. We met early in grade school and went thru junior high, high school and college together, played lots of tennis on our high school and college teams and during our hot summers in Rockford. We were editors of our college newspaper where Jack wrote his insightful and humorous sports column Jock’s Corner.
After college Jack attended the University of Washington to get a master’s degree in Urban Planning and I went to law school. We shared an apartment on Chicago’s near-north side after graduation where Jack had just started to work for HUD and I studied for the bar exam. He touted the virtues of living in Seattle and the Northwest and encouraged me to consider living there. I did and beat him to Seattle by a year.
He transferred to Seattle with HUD and become the regional director of community services, a position he held for over 50 years! He was revered at the agency for his longevity and knowledge of HUD history and issues, serving under many directors and providing his advice and insights to all of them. He was still working but had finally decided to retire when he was hospitalized.
Jack and I spent many good times together in Seattle attending Mariners’ games and eating holiday lutefisk at various spots around Seattle while trying (unsuccessfully) to get others to join us. I will miss those events and his always genial good humor.
My condolences to Mary and Jack’s family. I hope this finds you all in good health. Keep strong.
All my best, Bob Olson
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Sam Stonefield
Thanks, Bob, for posting this information and wonderful remembrance. I knew Jack in high school, mainly as a fellow tennis player. We played on the tennis team for all three years and played a lot during the summer -- lots of hot days hanging around the courts. Very good memories of very good times. What a good, loyal, friendly, funny guy. And what a splendid and distinguished career with HUD. We will miss you, Jack.
Jack Fortin
Bob, thanks for the fine remembrance of Jack! He and I were particularly close in Junior high and some in high school. He would often hang out at my house and consequently was liked by my family as well. He had a great sense of humor, was easy to be with and loyal friend...
Darrell Bloom
Thanks Bob, for the posting. I am so sorry to hear of Jack's passing. I also followed Jack through high school and Augustana College and fraturnity, but was always envious of Jack's, Chuck Nelson's your tennis skills (finally started to take some lessons last year.:) What a great life of service. I can only picture Jack calmly doing his thing for people around him. I danced around the edges of Jack's life, usually too involved in other things, but always respected this kind and gentle brother.
Blessings and love to his family, friends and the community he supported.
Jim Duhigg
Thanks Bob for posting this notice. I met Jack in the fall of 1954 when his family bought their house on 19th Street and he started fourth grade at Nelson School. We spent our summers at Churchill Park playing sandlot pick-up baseball games. It was at this same park that Jack developed the tennis skills that would later help him make the East High tennis team. I recall the last time I saw Jack was just after college when he and Bob Olson and myself attended a Cubs doubleheader on a very hot August afternoon in the late 1970's. I will treasure these memories of Jack.
Jim Duhigg
Error- My closing statement about Jack should read "in the late 1960's"
Sam Stonefield
Re: Jim Duhigg's post: Afternoon doubleheader at Wrigley -- sweet. And now, with baseball-reference.com and other sites, you can find your games and relive them through the box score. A meta-observation:it seems that memory and nostalgia lately are among my main fuels. And East Rockford childhoods and friends gave all of us plenty of good memories (and attested by this thread). Best to everyone at the 60th; sorry I can't attend.
Jane Olive (Howe)
Such beautiful memories of you and Jack, and your lifelong friendship, Bob. He was a great guy.
Charles Nelson
Jack was the linchpin,. My memories revolve around coming of age tales. We spent good times at Churchhill Park playing tennis. Jack was the only real athlete among us. He was a walk-on Augustana basketball player and lettered in tennis. But what I remember is his fluency in Spanish. We all had to take a foreign language in college and Jack mastered Spanish~~or Jack's version. It sounded like gibberish and it was. But Jack charged ahead where others were too timid
For years a group of us would play touch football on Thanksgiving at Churchill Park across the street from Jim Duhigg's. We vowed we would always keep the game going. Like to think we will. We initially planned to play every year, but eventually the games faded away. My memories of Jack haven't. Churchill, Lee's, the DON fraternity, the Coast Guard, the Cubs, Mexico, a great friendship.