Jack O. Hakkila

1940 - 2020

Jack O. Hakkila 1940 - 2020
Anchorage, Alaska - Jack Olavi Hakkila, age 80, left this world peacefully on the morning of September 26, 2020, in Anchorage, AK. He is remembered as a kind, humorous, faithful man who followed his dreams tirelessly and who succeeded in establishing a way of life few could replicate.
Jack was born on June 26, 1940, in Willimantic, CT, the son of Ida (Lillquist) Hakkila and Jack Hakkila of Canterbury, CT. He grew up on the family's chicken farm in Canterbury and started a business venture raising his own Rhode Island Reds. He graduated from Griswold High School in 1957 and went on to receive a B.S. degree from the University of Connecticut College of Agriculture in 1961 and an M.S. degree from the University of Connecticut School of Agricultural Economics in 1969.
At the age of 22, he traveled to Switzerland as an International Farm Youth Exchange delegate, spending six months living and working with farm families.
Jack taught Economics at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, wrote academic and policy articles, advocated for alternative energies in the early days of the Alaska Pipeline, worked as Advertising Manager at the Alaska Native newspaper the Tundra Times, was actively involved with the Finnish community, and for nearly three decades drove taxi in Anchorage and Fairbanks. He was the first person in Alaska to get his hovercraft license, worked as a boat pilot in Texas and Prudhoe Bay, AK, and was an avid airplane pilot. He flew from Windham, CT, to Fairbanks, AK, solo in a Piper Cub to go to a job interview in a plane he had rented for an hour but flew the round-trip flight instead. No one quite remembers why there was never a search party sent out.
Jack created a unique lifestyle during his approximately 50 years in Alaska, built upon hard work, adventure, and a wandering way of finding people and places at just the right time. He had a penchant for driving and drove cross-country and up and down the Alaska-Canada Highway more times than can be counted, packing the back seat with extra tires and choosing a vehicle that he had researched as being the car for which he would most likely be able to find spare parts behind gas stations across the country. He once drove non-stop from Alaska to Las Vegas to attend a nephew's wedding, arriving within minutes of the start of the ceremony. In 1969, he traveled with a missionary to southern Mexico.
Music was one of Jack's lifelong passions. He learned to play accordion as a child and had an accordion personally handcrafted for him while he was in Switzerland. He would play whenever there was an occasion, excuse, or venue, showing up in airports, hotel lobbies, farmhouses, and fields. He kept that accordion with him until his last days.
Jack's time was one thing he always enjoyed sharing. Time stood still when one had an opportunity to sit, ride, or walk with Jack. He could talk about a wide range of subjects with focus, humor, and humility and could recite scripture and poetry with the ease of someone enthralled by the simple beauty that the world provided. But he was most in his element listening to other people's stories and made them feel as if their story was the most important story in the world.
Among survivors are sisters, Aili (Val) Galasyn, Canterbury, CT, and Anita Smiley, Preston, CT; sister-in-law, Margaret Hakkila, Rio Verde, AZ; nieces, Cheryl Smiley, Sharlann Smiley, Elaine Prince, Katherine Galasyn-Wright, Valerie Poettgen, and Frances Miller; nephews, Gregory Smiley, Jon Hakkila, Mark Hakkila, Gregg Hakkila, and Carl Lillquist. He was predeceased by his parents; sisters Irene Autio and Elaine Wurster; brother, Arnold Hakkila; brothers-in-law Jack Smiley and Emil Autio.
Memorial contributions can be sent to the Finnish American Heritage Society, P.O. Box 252, Canterbury, CT.
Funeral arrangements are being handled by Legacy Heritage Memorial in Anchorage, AK.
Jack's presence on this planet will be missed, but the thread of life will continue to weave more beautifully and fully, with the life he lived having touched so many.