Henry F. ("Hank") Jaeckel

— Henry F. (“Hank”) Jaeckel —

Born: January 23, 1928, Atchison County, MO

Died: February 22, 2026, Denver, CO

Aged 98 years, 30 days

Hank was born in the extreme northwest corner of Missouri to Henry F. (“Fritz”) Jaeckel and Faye (Wingate) Jaeckel, the youngest of three children born to the couple. At the time of his birth, his sister Lois was 7 and his brother Hubert was 5. During his early years, Hank was known among the family as “Junior.” Sometime in the 1930s, Lois and Hubert decided that he should be known as “Henry.” For a while during his high school years, he went by “Jake,” but more often and from then on, he went by “Hank.”

Hank grew up on what he referred to as the lower-lower place about two miles south of the Iowa state line, very near the Missouri River and Nebraska. That property belonged to his grandfather Elijah Wingate. When he was six years old, he was involved in a farm accident that took his right hand. Although the incident was a terrible tragedy, he adapted to the situation and did not allow his amputation to impede his life’s work or hamper his role as husband and father. With rare exception, there was nothing he could not do. People who got to know him quickly understood that his hook was simply a part of his identity. It was not an issue for him, and so they learned to ignore it. Following his grandfather Wingate’s death in 1937, his family moved a mile north to a larger home on what he called the upper-lower place. During those years, he attended the Cox Chapel one-room school. His favorite teacher in those days was Gladys J. Brown. In 1941, when the Jaeckel family left the Cox Chapel area, Gladys wrote: “Henry, I am so proud of you. I shall be expecting your name to be at the top as you go on in your schoolwork.” When Grandpa Wingate’s property was sold in 1941, the Jaeckels moved across the state line to the Hatten property on the bluff road northwest of Hamburg, IA. Hank finished 7th grade and then 8th grade at Hamburg Grade School, where his mother had taught in 1916-1917. During his junior high years, Hank was active in 4H. He raised two pigs, Salomi and Sampson, which won ribbons for him at the county fair. In high school, Hank was on the debate team, he enjoyed singing—both solos and in quartets, he composed piano music for the left hand, he lettered in baseball, he received a Bausch and Lomb science award, and he was a member of the National Honor Society. He graduated valedictorian of Hamburg High School with nearly straight A’s in May 1946. The following year, he took business classes at the Commercial Extension in Omaha. The shorthand classes he took there served him well throughout life. In the fall of 1947, he began studies at the State University of Iowa in Iowa City. During his four years at SUI, he was President of the Wesley Foundation affiliated with the Methodist Church, he performed with the Wesley Players, he was a member of the student Christian Council, he played intermural badminton, he was treasurer of the Phi Kappa Sigma Fraternity, and he sang with the fraternity quartet and with the Wesley Foundation. He graduated in June 1951 with a Bachelor of Science in Commerce and a major in Marketing. It was at the Wesley Foundation in Iowa City where he met his wife, Ruth Johnson. In the summer of 1951, he began work as an Industrial Engineer for John Morrell & Co meat packers in Ottumwa, Iowa. Ruth spent six months as a Methodist Missionary in Algeria from September 1951 through March 1952. Upon her return, Hank and Ruth became engaged, and a year later, on June 14, 1953, they married at the Methodist Church in Corydon, Iowa, Ruth’s hometown. To this union were born three sons—Karl in 1955, Kurt in 1958 and Eric in 1961, all in Ottumwa. The family was active with the Wesley Methodist Church and made lifelong friends there. In 1964, Hank was transferred with John Morrell & Co to Arkansas City, KS. Once again, the family belonged to the Methodist Church, Hank bowled with the company bowling team, and the entire family enjoyed putting up luminarias at Christmastime for passersby to enjoy. In 1970, Hank was transferred from Arkansas City to El Paso, TX. All three sons graduated from Burges High School in El Paso and left home to begin their own careers. It was in El Paso that Hank and Ruth ventured from traditional Christianity into Unitarianism. Early in 1982, Hank was transferred a third time to Memphis, TN where he was Director of Quality Control. Within a couple of years, the Memphis plant closed. Hank was able to find employment with Southern Belle meat packers in Tupelo, MS, but soon after he and Ruth settled there, Southern Belle closed. After a period of unemployment, Hank found work doing time studies for Allied Enterprises, a Division of the Mississippi Department of Vocational Rehabilitation. He traveled to facilities in the northern half of Mississippi that trained people with disabilities and gave them the skills they needed to find work. In 1994, he and others travelled to China to help the Chinese establish their own rehabilitation program. He retired from Allied Enterprises in 1999. In 2000, Hank travelled with his sister Lois and his nephew Mike to Germany to meet distant Jaeckel relatives in the hometown of Wettin. During the years Hank and Ruth lived in Tupelo, they founded the Tupelo UU church community, and they were involved with Mississippi’s Common Cause (political advocacy organization). In 2015, he and Ruth moved to Denver to be near son Karl. Ruth passed away following two strokes on February 23, 2016. Hank lived on for an additional ten years at two different Brookdale facilities. During that time, he befriended Margaret Brown with whom he enjoyed singing—especially duets for the Brookdale audience. Hank died one day short of the tenth anniversary of Ruth’s death.

Hank was preceded in death by his parents, Fritz and Faye, his wife Ruth, his sister Lois, his brother-in-law Keith, his brother Hubert, his sister-in-law Ruth, his sisters-in-law Lael and Kay and their husbands Charles and Don. He was the last surviving grandchild of Elijah Wingate and Charity Cox, and he was 3rd to the last grandchild of Ferdinand and Meta (Neemann) Jaeckel. Only his first cousins Orvis Wall and Joyce Ruhrdanz remain. At 98, Hank outlived his contemporaries from high school and college.

Hank is survived by his three sons—Karl of Denver, Kurt (Angela) of Albuquerque, Eric (Anne) of Corydon, four grandchildren—Levi (Jessica) Jaeckel, Kalika (Jon) Ayin, Jenna Jaeckel and Breanna Jaeckel and four great grandchildren—Liam, Emma, Serena and Hannah. He is also survived by a host of nieces and nephews and a dear friend in Denver, Margaret Brown. Hank was an avid gardener and an environmentalist throughout his life. Donations may be made in his memory to The Nature Conservancy or to a charity of your choosing.

Hank's cremains were interred in the Jaeckel family plot at the Hamburg Cemetery in Hamburg, IA on July 25, 2026.