Mr. John Jack Henry Whalen Sr.

John H Whalen Sr.

Of Belfair Washington

Born August 22nd 1917

Died November 26th 2012

John passed peacefully in his sleep at the Haven in Allyn.

John (Jack) Whalen was born in Princeton Ill. To Edward J. and Isabelle J. (Grower) Whalen on August 22nd 1917 and went to be with his Lord and Savior on November 26th 2012.

Jack’s family moved to Hutchinson Kansas when he was very young. One of his favorite memories of his childhood was catching snakes in the sand pits on the grounds of the Kansas State Fair to sell to the local zoo. Most of his catches fetched 10 to 15 cents while a rattle snake was worth 25 cents! A lot of money in the early 1920’s. He and his friends enjoyed chasing Tornados across the Kansas fields in a Model T Ford. When he was fifteen teen he ran away from home and tried to join the Army, but they turned him down on account of age.

At the age of 18 he decided to become a logger was off to California to work in the Redwoods. Work was scarce in the early 30’s so he headed to sunny southern California only to find the best way to get steady work was to join the military so in 1936 he walk into a Marine Corps recruiting office, enlisted, and spent four years in the Corps. He was discharged a Private First Class in 1940 and, using the communication education he received in the Marine Corp he went to work for Pan Am Airlines as chief radio operator/ navigator aboard a Douglas DC3. At that time Pan Am had a contract with the Navy to ferry personnel and supplies to bases in Alaska. Jack’s 15 minutes of fame came when, in an ice storm over Prince William Sound with no visibility and low on fuel, he found a radio signal from a Navy weather station on a sandy reef and had the pilot follow the signal to a beach landing that saved all on board the little DC3. [Google Earth] “Whalen Bay, Alaska” Prince William Sound.

While working for Pan Am Jack met and married the love of his life Mary Eleanor in Seattle. They were married for 67 years. They had four children, Mary Jane, Kathleen(Katie), Virginia(Ginny), and John Jr. After the war and Pan Am lost it’s contract with the Navy Jack went to work for the Boeing Company working his way up to electrical engineer. During his 30-year career at Boeing he contributed engineering solutions to the “dash eighty” project, precursor to the military KC-135 still in use by the air force for in-flight refueling, and the 707, the first commercial jet airliner produced by Boeing and precursor to the 700 series flying the world to this day; military projects such as the communications system used by Air Force One during wartime and a Navy sonar technology developed and refined on Johnson Island, again for wartime use. He visited France to help Air France solve an electrical design problem with their cargo container inserts into their Boeing cargo planes.He retired after 30 years with the company and moved to his retirement home in Belfair on Hood Canal in 1979.

But, being a workings mans’ man Jack could not sit still and soon found that Mason County needed a PUD commissioner so he ran for the office and was a commissioner for 25 years and retired again at 92 years old in 2009. During his 30-year second career in public power, he served on the board of Energy Northwest to oversee Mason County PUD’s interest in the nuclear power plant, the wind generating station at Nine Mile Canyon, and various other public generating projects. Early in his tenure he was instrumental in persuading Washington Governor Booth Gardner to authorize relief for the PUDs during the WPPSS debacle, thus allowing many rural residents to remain in their homes and businesses. A highlight of his tenure at Mason was the construction of the Olympic View generating station.

Jack was preceded in death by his wife Mary, his daughter Katie and daughter Ginny. He is survived by his daughter Mary Hollen of Green Bank, son John Jr. of Belfair, five grand children, Tim O’Mahony of Port Orchard, Molly O’Mahony of Seattle, Pattie Quinn of Coupeville, Syrie Barsness of Cheney and James (Jim) Hollen of Ontario, Oregon. Thirteen great grand children, and one great great granddaughter, Rosie.

A funeral mass will be held at Prince of Peace Roman Catholic Church 1171 NE Sandhill Rd. on December the 14th 2012 at 11:00 AM. Celebration of life to follow.

In lieu of flowers please make a donation to your favorite charity.

An online memorial can be viewed at www.dignitymemorial.