Hans "Jack" Helmut Hessler

Hans “Jack” Helmut Hessler was born March 18, 1927 in Hamburg, Germany to parents Anna (Stark) and Ernst Hessler. He died at home in Cambridge, Ontario on Monday, December 24, 2018 at the age of 91. Beloved husband of Mary Lou (Fanning) for 58 years, loving and dedicated father of daughters Anne Starr (Clifford) of Paris, France, and Stephanie of Concord, Massachusetts, and sons Chris of Boston, Massachusetts and Jackson, Wyoming, and David (Tatiana) of Nendaz, Switzerland. He will be lovingly remembered by grandchildren Paul Schubert, Philip Hessler, Brolin Mawejje, Thomas Schubert, Jack Hessler, Jimmy Hessler, Peter Starr, Nikki Hessler, Katja Hessler, Lisa Hessler and Alec Hessler. He is predeceased by brother Karl Ernst Hessler and sister Barbara L. Brandt. At the age of seventeen, he was drafted into Germany’s only surviving Cavalry Regiment in Lueneburg, Germany in August 1944. A knee injury saved him from being sent to the Russian front in January 1945. He returned home in March 1945 to become a prisoner of war of the British in May 1945. He was discharged after time spent in a POW camp outside Ploen, Germany in July 1945. Jack received his Baccalaureate from the Waldoerferschule in Hamburg, Germany in 1947. He then served a three-year apprenticeship as grain merchant with a journeyman’s certificate from Handelsschule, Hamburg. Jack immigrated to the United States in 1950 to assist in the opening of the office of Germany’s largest grain import/export company, Alfred C. Toepfer, in New York City. In March 1951, as an immigrant to the U.S., he was given the unexpected choice of either being drafted into the U.S. Army or being sent back to Germany. He selected the former. Jack became a member of the U.S. Military Intelligence Service after graduating from the U.S. Army Language School in Monterey, California, as a triple linguist (Russian, German and English). He was assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina where he became an interrogator of Russian defectors. After his discharge in 1954 from the U.S. Army, he was hired by Cargill, Inc. of Minneapolis, Minnesota, a global grain trading and agricultural commodities processing firm. During his 35-year career, he served in nine countries, including The Philippines, Peru, Canada and Switzerland, on four continents primarily as Country Manager. He was continually motivated by his worldwide assignments. He was nominated a Director of Cargill’s European operation in The Netherlands in 1983 and served as Chairman of the Board of Cargill’s operations on the subcontinent. From 1998 to 2006, he served as President of the Alexander Von Humboldt Foundation, a German/American organization headquartered in New York City under the auspices of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland and the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He enjoyed the privilege of bestowing the Von Humboldt Gold Medal Prize on President George H.W. Bush, Mr. Ted Turner and Mrs. Teresa Kerry for their extraordinary accomplishments as leaders and philanthropists. Von Humboldt prizes were given to young scientists in the agricultural field, as well. His personal passion was agriculture. He and his wife purchased a 250-acre farm in Branchton, Ontario in 1971 where they lived from 1989 to 2013. He re-purposed farm buildings for a poultry operation and enjoyed a small herd of Black Angus cows. As a land developer, he developed some 200 building lots around Cambridge between 1990 and 2005. He was a family man first and a friend to everyone. His work ethic, integrity and gift for telling stories about his life and travels were a source of inspiration to family and friends. He and his family attended the Lutheran Church in Cambridge, Ontario for many years since 1971. Jack and Mary Lou sold their farm in 2012 to retire at the Granite Landing Residence in Cambridge. During his lifetime Jack Hessler planted many trees, probably 5,000 in total including on his farm in Branchton and several of his subdivisions. He loved trees, nature and wildlife, specifically that of South Africa where he and Mary Lou spent time in retirement. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to The Royal Canadian Geographical Society. A private celebration will take place at a later date.