Jack Gehring

Jack Dean Gehring passed away at his residence in Orono, Maine, on Oct. 18, 2018.   He was 91.  

Jack was born to parents Charles and Alice (Schoentag) Gehring on Sept. 26, 1927, in Elgin, Iowa, and graduated from Elgin High School in 1944.   

He attended Iowa State University before entering the United States Army in 1946, where he was deployed to Seoul, Korea, in the Signal Corps.  

Jack married Eva Mae Dennler in 1950, and they had two children, Jeffery and Julianne.   

In 1959, he began his career as an air traffic controller for the Federal Aviation Administration in Indianapolis, ultimately retiring as Chief of the Des Moines Flight Service Station in 1985.   

Jack was a member of Masonic Lodge #628 in Norwalk, Iowa, for many years. 

He enjoyed photography, writing, and working with his hands, especially woodworking and working on cars.   He once amazed his suburban neighbors by fully restoring a 1929 John Deere GP tractor in his garage, and by giving the delighted neighborhood children tractor rides.  He enjoyed writing short stories about growing up on an Iowa farm, which were often featured in the Elgin Echo. 

In 2013, Jack and Eve relocated to Orono, Maine, to be near their daughter’s family.  

Eve preceded Jack in death, passing away in 2014.

Jack is survived by his son Jeffery and Gail Gehring of Lenexa, Kan.; daughter Julianne and Philip Cormier of Bangor, Maine; his sisters, Janice Thiese and husband Wayne and Kathy Elliff and husband David; and five grandchildren, Ross and Isabel Cormier, and Lindsay, Ryan, and Jamie Gehring.   

He will be fondly remembered by all whose lives he touched.   

An interment service for Jack and Eve will be scheduled in Elgin, Iowa, in the spring of 2019.         45u45