Walt Bergman:
First of all, I think the most common word that describes Jack — and that you’ll hear this universally — is that he’s a gentleman. And he truly is. He’s a true gentleman. He always put the needs of others ahead of himself.
Karen Kiefer:
Dedicated. Always there. He always wanted to stay involved, and he truly loved what he was doing. He loved the kids, and he loved the program — and it always showed.
Jack Stephens:
Jack Stephens, 86 years old. I got involved in wanting to volunteer and actually getting out and doing it in 1993, that was the year that I retired. What are you going to do, you know, you’re retired? It’s ’93. What are you going to do? I don’t need another job. I’ve already retired. I’ve got — not great paychecks — but I can get gas for my pickup. So what can I do to help people that don’t have that? And this, I thought, was one of them. I can go up and do this. And probably a little bit selfish on my part, simply because where would I want to be? Out pruning a tree in the orchard? No. I don’t want to be up there where the snow is. Or in the summer, I’d rather be down on the river with rafts.
Karen Kiefer:
First of all, I’d say Jack was always fun. It didn’t matter if we had elementary school kids or high school kids — he always made a connection with them.
Jack Stephens:
I really think that I don’t see so many “eureka” moments, but when you see the appreciation — and where they want to do it again, and want to do it well, and want to share it with their parents or share it with the older folks, with the other people they are with. And they would prefer doing that than just sitting down at the wooden table down in front of the office. So, I don’t know, it’s very seldom do you see that.
Walt Bergman:
One of Jack’s greatest attributes, I think, was what you didn’t see with Jack. He was behind the scenes. He was putting things together and working on equipment. He fabricated some of the equipment they still use today. He worked on vehicles. He would do food buys and preparation for some of the river trips, and he would just do so many things behind the scenes that most people never saw.
Karen Kiefer:
Definitely, Jack was one of the favorite instructors up there. Jack always had a Hershey’s Kiss in his pocket. Always. And if he had to use it, he would — and it always worked, too.
Jack Stephens:
Yeah, well, you’ve got a bag of tricks. Well, these are things I saw people do.
Walt Bergman:
Jack just makes the world a better place. He wants to help people. And like I say, he loved the students — and it was reciprocal. You could see that they returned the love.
Jack Stephens:
It was one of the best things that ever happened for me. I hope it was pretty good for the people I was fortunate enough to work with.