Jack Sanders

Jack was born September 5, 1942 to father Jack Sr. and mother Thelma. After his parents’ divorce, Jack was raised by his father and his stepmother, Bernice, and he spent much time with his beloved Grandma Floy as well. He grew up in the Granada Hills area and was a good student, a good athlete, and class president in high school, well-liked and popular among his classmates. He struggled briefly with geometry until a fateful afternoon when he received tutoring from noted physicist Richard Feynman, and then Jack went on to be a superb math student and, later, a math teacher.

As a teenager, Jack spent a couple of summers working in Jackson Hole, Wyoming at the Jenny Lake Store and its gas station. He fell in love with the area and returned to it many times during his life, considering it to be one of the most beautiful spots on Earth. After high school, Jack spent some time at Annapolis and also attended UCLA, where he studied to become an educator. It was during his college years that he met his future wife, Nancy, introducing himself to the lovely lady by sitting behind her in class, tapping her on the shoulder, and begging her never to cut her long, blonde hair.

Jack and Nancy married in 1965. Both worked as educators in southern California for several years before welcoming their first child into the world in 1973, daughter Melanie. Daughter Christi came along in 1976, and then after a move north to the Rogue Valley of southern Oregon, along came daughter number 3, Jill. Jack worked a number of odd jobs at first, including chopping wood and joining handyman neighbor George Slocum on roofing jobs, but later he got a job teaching primarily math at North Middle School in Grants Pass, where he worked for decades until he reached retirement age.

Over the years, Jack dabbled in many different things including karate, a small and temporary greeting cards side business, and a talent show act as a bumbling but humorous stage magician known as “The Great Sandini” that he performed for special occasions and to much applause and chuckling. He also worked with wife Nancy and friends Jerry and Sue Dawson to create a mail-order homeschooling curriculum called Quest International that never quite got off the ground but did provide lots of fodder for fun times, fond memories, and laughter afterward.

Jack enjoyed spirited debate and had very strong opinions. He developed a love of gardening and an interest in self-sufficiency, and spent a lot of time outdoors. Favorite musicians included James Taylor, Harry Chapin, The Limelighters, Shelby Flint, and folk singing trio Peter, Paul, and Mary; sometimes he played some of their songs on his acoustic guitar. Rumor has it that he and wife Nancy were once talked into attending a Jimi Hendrix concert, although certain members of his family find that extremely hard to visualize without photographic proof.

A heart attack in 2010 forced Jack to cut back on the volunteer grounds maintenance he used to do for a local religious organization, but he did still enjoy beautifying the yard around his and Nancy’s Rogue River home and spent lots of time in their English-style garden “across the creek” from their house, observing nature. He kept close to home in his later years, but he did get to visit his beloved Jackson Hole one last time in 2018 for a family reunion with his brothers. In 2023, Jack finally lost his battle with the Alzheimer’s disease he’d been diagnosed with years earlier, and he passed away peacefully on May 8th. Preceded in death by his parents and younger brother Sam, Jack is survived by wife Nancy; brothers Ken, Tony, Joe, and Jon; daughters Melanie, Christi, and Jill; and grandsons Shane and Cayden. He loved his family very much, and he will be missed.