Jack Philip Thacker

1913 - 2021

To say that Jack Philip Thacker led a lengthy, productive and an active life even in his later years still would be understating his incredible voyage in this celestial sphere. Indeed, how many people can claim during their lifetime to have lived under 20 United States presidents dating to William Howard Taft when Mr. Thacker was born on October 28, 1913, or vote in 22 US presidential elections going back to the Franklin Roosevelt-Alf Landon one in 1936, or making regular round trip journeys between his home in Naples to the Queen Mary when he was 101? It hadn't been officially documented if Mr. Thacker had been the oldest person in Long Beach when he passed away on June 23rd, but it wouldn't exactly be over the top to say he was since he was a mere four months away from celebrating his 108th birthday. He long had been a popular figure among cyclists in the Long Beach area, and continued his biking passion until he reluctantly gave it up at 102 at the persistence of family and friends. "The years eventually take their toll---and I knew it was time for me to leave my bike in the garage,' he told a reporter. Inevitably during his decades of cycling, he had a few misfortunes. He once pulled over on the ocean cycling pathway to use the restroom, but when he came out he found his bike had been stolen. Displaying the same resilience he had throughout his existence, he climbed the nearby bluff steps to Ocean Blvd., called for a taxi that took him to the old Jones Bicycle Shop in Belmont Shore where he quickly purchased a new bike which he soon would find to be discomforting during a brief ride. So he immediately returned to the Jones store and exchanged it for another one that he rode home. He once found a cell phone on one of his journeys, and it rang when he reached his residence which was on the canal near the Colonnade. The person who owned it asked Mr. Thacker if he would be able to bring it to him in downtown Long Beach. And he obligingly did. 'That's the way my father was. . .a very kind and giving man,' said his son, Jack Thacker, a loyal son who resides on The Toledo and who with his wife Sharon would visit his father daily in recent years. When he was 100, Mr. Thacker was riding over the Naples Bridge when a teenage cyclist rear-ended him and both fell to the pavement. Somehow, Mr. Thacker got up, brushed himself off, and made it safely back to his home. Jack Philip Thacker was born in Ogden, Utah, but grew up in nearby Salt Lake City. During the Great Depression when jobs were difficult to secure, he was able to find work for the United States Post office, and across 30 years he handled various jobs in Salt Lake City, Ogden, San Francisco and Fresno. He also worked 20 years in his son Jack's fire sprinkler business. He and his wife Thelma---they were married 64 years---moved to Long Beach in 1989, and lived on the Rivo Alto Canal before relocating to the residence near the Colonnade where Mr. Thacker was a well-known neighborhood figure for his daily morning ritual of raising the American Flag on a pole that stood on an empty lot on his property. "'He loved doing that. . .that was as much a part of his life as cycling was,' says his son Jack, who revealed that his father actually suffered a broken hip in the early 1990s that didn't deter him from resuming his passion for several more years. Jack Philip Thacker is also survived by two other sons, Jim and Daniel, seven grandchildren, and five great grandchildren. He will be buried in Salt Lake City next to his wife who passed away in 2000. A private celebration of his life will be held in Long Beach on October 2. When a reporter once asked Mr. Thacker the secret to his longevity, the lithe, soft-spoken, 130-pound gentleman shrugged and said, 'Well, I've always stayed trim and always did everything in moderation. I'm sure genetics has something to do with it. I've just been very blessed in my life. .'