Born in 1930 to pharmacist Lincoln and homemaker Warrena (nee Owen), he followed his older siblings into the movies, and was given the stage name Jackie Paige. At age two, he made his film debut appearing as Constance Bennett’s baby in What Price Hollywood?, and did many films throughout his younger years while enjoying school. His class of sixteen students at Valley View Elementary remained lifelong friends as they reunited annually for decades. After performing in a number of films through grammar school, he requested that his mother let him quit when he wanted to run for a student body office in junior high. This marked the end of his acting career and a reclamation of his original nickname Jack.
Having a close relationship with his grandmother, who lived into her hundreds, he spent considerable time at her home in Santa Monica, where he started his lifelong trademark tan. Given the price differential, his father refused to sponsor his education at USC, so Jack settled for UCLA, where he studied journalism, wrote for the Daily Bruin newspaper, and made more lifelong friends. He graduated in 1952 and, among many at the time, was drafted into the army.
He was first sent to Marin County to train as an MP. Although he was sent to Korea during the war, he wrote for a couple of different newsletters, which kept him out of battle. A couple of side trips to Japan were a great thrill for him, and he sent home trinkets to his grandmother and family, as well as collected some artwork that he treasured for the rest of his life. He even got to meet up with a college friend who was visiting Japan with her family. He also met some of his lifelong friends in the army, including a social maven who connected people wherever he went, especially gay men living in the very closeted 50’s.
Upon discharge in 1954, Jack returned home to Los Angeles. Looking for work as a journalist in 1955, an offer came from University of California Berkeley to write for The University Bulletin. This required him to relocate to the Bay Area, where he lived in an apartment in San Francisco referred to as the “Broadway Social Club”. After saving up some money, he joined his army buddy on an extended trip through Europe in late '58/early '59 until the money absolutely ran out and he had to return home to San Francisco, where he was hired as the editor of Pacific Coast Review, a food industry magazine. During this period he not only made more lifelong friends, he also met his first partner who convinced him to move to New York to live with him in Irving Plaza.
In 1967 he got what was literally the job of his lifetime writing for The Food Institute newsletter, a company in NYC that provided news to industry people in food production, distribution, and sales. He lived with his partner for ten years, but ultimately wanted to be closer to the company, which had since moved to New Jersey. His boss’s wife was a realtor who convinced him to buy a small carriage house in 1978 that was formerly the model home in a Tudor neighborhood in Teaneck. He remodeled and expanded the home, and lived there for over three decades, hosting countless dinner parties and social events. Jack was ultimately promoted to vice president of the company, and was a well respected writer and leader, even playing Santa Claus at all of the employee holiday parties.
While living in NJ, he drove into Manhattan multiple times every week to soak up all of the arts, both visual and performance. He socialized with his namesake cousin and his wife, as well as many friends there. He maintained a close relationship with another partner for many years, although they never lived together. Ironically, he pooled resources with some other friends and bought his partner’s weekend home on Fire Island, at which they enjoyed weekend after weekend of relaxing, social, seaside fun for decades.
When his cousin’s daughter started at NYU, she looked to Jack as a close relative and guide to her new city. But he wasn’t always around, as the passion for travel never left him, and he consistently found opportunities to scratch the itch to see the world, especially when there were Olympic Games or a World’s Fair involved. His cousin’s parents bought a second home in Brittany, France, which became a launching point for more world travel, especially throughout Europe. He visited them a majority of the twenty years they maintained the home there, and often traveled together farther afield.
Jack retired in the early 2000’s, and had a major life decision to make: where to spend his final years. Since he felt “his Los Angeles” did not exist any longer, and felt a love for San Francisco, he moved there, where he could be close to many friends and family members. So in 2005, after 45 years on the east coast, he was back in California, where after temporarily living near the cousins with whom he spent so much time in Europe, he ultimately set up a comfortable apartment on Twin Peaks overlooking the city, thanks to the encouragement of friends living nearby. He continued to enjoy checking travel destinations off his bucket list, and soaked up as much artistic culture as he could including San Francisco Ballet, Opera, Symphony, as well as other theatrical and performing events, art museums, and as always, the cinema. And along with his cousin on the Rengstorff side, he even became renowned at the historical Rengstorff House in Mountain View.
Jack enjoyed his volunteering job at the California Academy of Sciences, educating people about the creatures of the tide pool exhibition and cautioning them not to rough house the starfish and friends. He also volunteered at the San Francisco Symphony, where he served coffee and donuts to the attendees of the morning rehearsals. He contributed to many non profit organizations operating in a variety of different fields. Socially, he became a member of the exclusive Bowman Luncheon group at which he met his final partner, whom he called “the love of his life”. They moved in together that first day in 2012 and began an exciting adventure filling in gaps in his travel dreams, starting with a lifelong quest to see Machu Picchu in Peru and ultimately reaching another twelve countries together. Through the miracle of social media, and the help of his partner, Jack was able to reconnect with his sister, who would visit them from Colorado.
In 2018, the household moved to Marin County together, coming full circle from where he did his MP training seventy years prior. He enjoyed a peaceful life living in the woods surrounded by nature, yet close enough to the excitement of San Francisco to enjoy it regularly for his remaining four years. He had the opportunity to enjoy a couple of road trips with his local niece to Southern California to visit his other nieces and nephews and their families, which gave him great joy. He also made a couple of trips to New York to see his cousins as well as old friends and housemates. His last big intercontinental hurrah was to check India off his bucket list.
The pandemic of 2020 brought the world into a slow motion state, and Jack never really kicked back into high gear. Ultimately he went into the San Francisco VA Medical Center in December 2022 having difficulty breathing, and barely the strength to get out of a chair. In the hospital, a mass was found on his left lung, but it was too late to do anything to treat it, as he passed away peacefully a few days later. He never suffered in pain, and was still driving and living life fully just days before he died.
A private celebration of his life is being planned. He requested donations be made in his honor at Openhouse of San Francisco and/or Marin Humane Society.
Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.sanfranciscocolumbarium.com for the Rengstorff family.
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