John "Jack" Walter Ernst
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Jack's obituary
John Walter (Jack) Ernst died Wednesday July 22, 2015 at age 87 at Porter Hospital in Denver, Colorado after complications from surgery.
He was born on September 15, 1927, in Lincoln, Nebraska, to Frances Weintz and Walter Ernst. In 1932 in the midst of the depression Jack went with his mom and her parents to California to live with relatives while his father went to live with his parents in the country. The family reunited Lincoln in May of 1933 where the family lived in a series of apartments in Lincoln and sister Ruthann was born in 1935 when Jack was 7 years old. His father sold insurance and his mother was later secretary of the math department at the University of Nebraska.
When he was 18 years old, after a year of college, Jack left his family home by bus to Kansas to start a 1 ½ year enlistment in the regular army beginning February 9, 1946. He served at Fort Leavenworth, in Ford, Kansas. While in the service he saw San Francisco and New York City. After he returned home he went back to the University of Nebraska and graduated June 5, 1950 with a degree in architectural engineering. He worked for the State designing culverts and bridges. He then got a job overseeing men replacing the gold leaf at the Nebraska State Capitol. In Feb 1951 he joined the Army reserves at Camp Carson.
Jack and Marian were both students at the University of Nebraska and met in 1952. They were married on July 31, 1954 and moved to Milwaukee Wisconsin where Jack had a job as a civil engineer with the Wisconsin highway DOT. After a year in Milwaukee the opportunity came to move to Denver to take a job with Stearns-Roger that then took him to Rapid City South Dakota for a year or so in the early 60s and then back to Denver with Martin Marietta. Jack returned to school at the University of Denver for his master’s in engineering. He worked on the Apollo Program as an aeronautical engineer designing rocket fuel, and later he worked on SkyLab; he truly was a rocket scientist. After 32 years with Martin, Jack retired.
Jack loved taking pictures and one of his favorite things was to share his slides with whoever would sit and watch. Jack and Marian had always traveled with the family, lots of camping in the tent trailer, but after retirement they continued and with the help of time shares and Elderhostel, Jack and Marian eventually visited every state in the union. They also took numerous cruises all over the world.
A lifelong Unitarian Universalist, Jack was very involved in the church and was on the Building & Ground Committee for almost as long as he was active in church affairs. In 1956, Jack and Marian were among the founding members of First Universalist church on Hampden Avenue in Denver where he was on Four Building projects including the original building of the church. They participated in many UU activities over the years: camping, cross country skiing, Sip and Sup.
He was cremated and his remains placed at the First Universalist Church Memorial Gardens in Denver, Colorado.
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