Last Friday Jack Robertson passed away.  It was not unexpected, as I’d heard that he had liver problems and I’d been thinking about him a lot.  He had been very healthy aside from some problems with his knee and he didn’t drink.   It just doesn’t seem right.

I first heard about Jack around 2001 when my friend and neighbor Jim Rapp and I decided that we would fence our properties.  Jim suggested hiring Jack, the local carpenter and go-to guy for all sorts of projects.  One evening Jim had invited me for a beer and we enjoyed a beautiful sunset when Jack drove by and Jim tried to get his attention by waving at him.   Jack waved back and kept on going.   That happened a few more times and Jack never stopped, possibly because of Jim’s SO Nancy, I don’t know.  I ended up digging  post holes and mixing concrete and Jim set the posts and had the know-how and kids to put up the field fence.  Jim was a great guy and the first friend I lost here a few years later to colon cancer.

Eventually I met Jack at a garage sale and he was talking GOLD.  He had pictures of gold and he could talk gold like nobody else.  Apparently there were metal detecting competitions between the Minelab guys and Jack with his Goldbug.

In 2006 Jack helped built my garage / house:

8-14-06--Jack-concrete-slab

Jack helps pour my slab

8-14-06--Jack-concrete-slab-2

It was a long hot day

 

8-14-06--Jack-gluelam

Getting ready to install the gluelam

Jack and his wife Cathy volunteered for the Coyote Melon Festivals and Jack organized the nugget shooting and treasure hunt:

10-6-07--Jack-Coyote-Melon-Festival-detecting

Jack gives instructions

10-7-07--Jack-Coyote-Melon-Festival

Jack makes sure nobody cheats?

Jack brought prospecting equipment and dirt for demonstrations at the festival:

10-6-07--Jack-Coyote-Melon-Festival-gold

Jack is having fun at the 2007 Coyote Melon Festival

I enjoyed Jack’s many stories about his time in in the military in Germany, about gold and about living in Meadview since 1989.  Jack told me how the MCA tricked property owners into joining the MCA by providing a garbage dumpster for members.  $35 per year for trash disposal isn’t bad.  Of course members couldn’t leave the MCA once it stopped providing the dumpster. Jack and Cathy didn’t fall for that trick and their property is not in the MCA.

In recent years I met Jack mostly at the well, at a neighbor’s place or at the farmstand. Jack enjoyed his retirement and he was prospecting a lot.  I often saw him clean up dirt behind his house.

Jack was fun, honest and he worked hard.  We will miss him.

RIP