aka Jack & Hank Henry Marlin Hansen

Early childhood years: Jack's earliest memories are when living in Rapid City, South Dakota. Having barely survived a burst appendix, and fighting off the related morphine addiction, Jack's father moved his family to a vacant ranch house of a friend. Life was tough and Henry J. trapped, hunted, and fished to support his young family. One of Jack's earliest memories is when his father and a friend discovered a large honey bee hive in the cliffs near Rapid City. They smoked out the bees and harvested great amounts of honey, providing much needed income. When he was about 6 years old he remembers secretly climbing into the trunk of their car, which was full of skunk pelts his dad was taking to town to sell. When he proudly climbed out of the trunk, surprising everyone, he was instantly shooed away for stinking to high heaven! and, had to ride back home in the rumble seat.

Circa 1943-1946: A Young Henry Marlin Hansen, aka "Jack" drops out of high school in Riverside, Calif. and joins the Navy. Sails from San Diego for the South Pacific on the USS Mobile in 1944 as an electrician in charge of keeping the big-gun gyro working in the bottom of the ship. Dad would tell me much later, he didn't know what was going on above decks, just a lot of booming and noise. At wars end, his ship serves in operation "Magic Carpet" bringing troops home. During this operation their convoy was overcome by a typhoon and the Mobile's masthead light burned out. Jack was required to climb the main mast above the ship, the top of the mast pitching hundreds of feet back and forth between port and starboard. He barely managed to survive the incident, without getting the light changed. After Operation Magic Carpet, Dad sails with USS Mobile to the Naval base in Bremerton, Washington where he finishes his service in the Navy decommissioning and mothballing his ship.

Circa 1946-1953: Jack returns to civilian life in Riverside, Calif. Works as electrician for Southern Calif. Edison, upgrading rural electrical capacity. Takes up roller skating and meets Mearl Louise Allen, aka "Mickey" at a skating rink in the Riverside/San Bernardino area. They marry in July 1948 and move to Chico, Calif. where he enrolls in Chico State College under the GI Bill and turns his father's garage into a small apartment. While living in the "house that Jack built" and going to school, Jack and Mickey have their first child in1951 as he takes a physics final exam. Henry graduates with an engineering degree after the college finds a way for him to earn his GED prior to graduation but after completing all college course requirements!!!

Circa mid-1950s to early 1960s: Jack and Mickey (and Stevie) move to Long Beach, Calif. as he begins working for McDonnell Douglas aircraft company as a rookie engineer doing draftsman duties. As the family grew to four children so did Jack's engineering expertise in design and analysis of various measurement and control systems for aircraft. The family moved to a larger house in Garden Grove in view of Disney Land's Matterhorn. One of his early aircraft engineering accomplishments was on the design and testing of hydraulic control systems for the DC-3 aircraft. Later, special projects took him away from home to classified military research facilities near Sacramento and the underground nuclear test facility in the Nevada desert.

Circa 1962: Jack, by now known more often as "Hank" took a job with ACF Industries in Albuquerque, NM. He continued to work at the Nevada Test Site, involved with the early development of computerized sensing and measurement systems. He would later tell me how a sensor malfunction once caused a high speed punch tape data recorder to fill an entire trailer to the ceiling with punch tape. On his own time, in his garage, Hank developed a 2-D digital/optical level sensor using new-technology light emitting diodes and a standard trailer bulls-eye bubble leveler. This device worked so well it was patented by ACF. Jack also found time to become one of the founding fathers, establishing All Saints Lutheran Church in Albuquerque's Paradise Hills. 20 years later, one of his grandchildren was baptized there. And 40 years later, two of his great-grandchildren were baptized there.

In 1965 Hank moves his family to San Jose to work for Northrup Grueman corporation, continuing his work in classified projects and the development of his expertise in the design and implementation of data collection systems as digital technology improves. He would later tell me, long after it had been revealed publicly, that on one underground nuclear test, an incomplete understanding of the geohydrology in the test area caused vaporization of groundwater to fracture the bedrock formation causing a shock wave that destroyed all instrumentation and released radioactivity to the atmosphere.

In 1969 Hank again moved his family, this time to Dickinson, Texas to work for Lockheed Corporation in NASA's space program. By this time the computer revolution was in full swing, and he was fully in his element. He bought and used every programmable computing device that came along and worked on specialized data acquisition and transmission systems for the Space Shuttle Program for the next 20 years before entering retirement around 1989. During this time, he helped establish another new Lutheran Church in League City, Texas. During the late 1980s Henry and Mearl divorced and he later remarried to Julia Kilpatrick.

Retirement: Hank and Julie shed their nicknames and started using their formal names Henry & Julia. Henry became a consultant building customized computers, keeping up with technology as fast as it developed. Later, they traveled a lot, spending time with family, children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. They kept busy by square dancing and being active members in their church.

MEMORIAL SERVICE

SATURDAY

JULY 25, 2015

10:00 A.M.

ABIDING PRESENCE LUTHERAN CHURCH

14700 SAN PEDRO AVENUE