Jacqueline Geiler

Jacqueline H. Geiler, age 95, passed away peacefully March 26,2019 at Good Shepherd/Good Samaritan Nursing Home in Sun City. Jackie was born May 3, 1923, in Hamburg, Iowa to Hazel (Swanson) and Paul Holtzinger. She was an only child who enjoyed roller skating down a steep hill, watching her father play in the town band, and organizing field trips with her classmates. Her mother was chief ticket seller at the local movie house and pianist for the silent movies featured. After high school, Jackie moved to Des Moines, close to her Uncle Dwayne and his wife Mary, who helped support Jackie as she pursued her secretarial certificate. She also earned money teaching ballroom dancing to Iowa farmers. After a brief marriage, Jackie moved across the country in 1943 to work in the atomic energy plant in Hanford, Washington. While the operations of the plant were secret, Jackie came to regret that she had any part in bomb-making. “I have lingering feelings of guilt and deep regret ….this emotion will never subside,” she wrote.

By 1959, the plant had transformed into a research and development operation and Jackie was promoted to a management position in the Public Relations department, organizing company displays both internally and for the public. She loved art, and had a knack for discovering new and emerging artists. She and a good friend partnered together to purchase a commercial art gallery, which led to Jackie spearheading efforts to establish the area’s first arts council, the Arts Council of the Mid-Columbia Region. Jackie became its first executive director, and years later, would return to help stabilize it. In 1971, she married Ken Geiler , a nuclear engineer, and they traveled to various states for his work, landing in Decatur, Illinois in 1982. The Arts Council was looking for a director and Jackie fit the bill. “Jackie was my boss,” said her guardian, Nancy Wolter, “And I was wary, the previous director had not been a good fit. But Jackie was brilliant in so many ways. She brought Maya Angelou in for a week-long residency; she coordinated wearable art shows, bringing exotic and elegant clothes and jewelry for trunk shows; she was kind, forgiving, accepting.” Jackie’s marriage to Ken ended, but opened up the opportunity to move to Arizona, where her now widowed Uncle Dwayne lived and whose Alzheimer’s disease was progressing. She applied for, and was appointed, the first director of the Tempe Center of the Arts, then housed in a historic building in downtown Tempe. She featured a number of local artists such as Will Bruder (architect), William Eaton (musician) and others in exhibits and programs. In 1988, Jackie retired and moved to Sun City to take a more active role assisting her Uncle. There she fell in love with and married Frank Orkongly in 1997. They loved gardening together, especially around their cabin in Payson. In Sun City, Jackie joined a meditation group, attended Jungian lectures, served as secretary for many years in the Ikebana Club. She never missed an art exhibit and did much to support a number of arts institutions. But Septembers, you’d find her in Santa Barbara where she collected sea shells and attended classes and programs in metaphysics at Pacifica University.

Shortly after Frank died in March 2014, Jackie’s mental faculties declined and she asked her good friend, Nancy Wolter, to serve as her guardian. “In Jackie, I had the quintessential role model. She demonstrated kindness, patience, forgiveness over and over again. When she asked me to be her guardian, I was deeply humbled and honored. It has been profoundly moving to assist her in her final hours, to let her know how much beauty and goodness she brought to the world.”