Jack Franklin Elmberg Sr.

Jack Franklin Elmberg Sr.

Jack Franklin Elmberg Sr. was born at Virginia Mason Hospital in Seattle on October 17, 1933.  He and his older sister, Jean, graduated from Garfield High School.  At the University of Washington, he joined Delta Tau Delta fraternity, achieved 4-years of Air Force ROTC training and graduated with a B.S. in mechanical engineering in 1956.  During his senior year, Jack met Carol (on a double date with his best friend, Jim, and Carol’s sister, Donna) and married her in March 1957.

They soon moved to Detroit where Jack Jr. was born.  For two years, Jack worked for the Army and with 130 Army engineers designing tanks with Chrysler.  He also attended night school and earned his M.S. in mechanical engineering at Wayne State University by February 1960.  The young family then relocated to an Army base in France where Jack served as the commanding officer of the motor vehicle Maintenance Depot.  It was in France that daughters Anne and Nancy were born.

The family took advantage of Jack’s periodic leave to travel much of Europe.  After four years stationed overseas, they returned to Seattle where Jack began work for Boeing.  His work centered around the Minuteman missile program.

Carol and Jack

In 1964, the family moved to Palo Alto.  They drove down to California along Highway 101.  In Crescent City, the couple decided not to camp along the beach but stayed in a motel on a hill above the beach.  Sirens blared throughout the night.  They discovered that overnight the tsunami of the Great Alaska Earthquake had hit the Pacific Coast and destroyed Crescent City.  In the morning, the family drove away, grateful to be alive.

Once they settled in Palo Alto, Jack began work at Hewlett Packard (HP).  He worked on the Aircraft Collision Avoidance System, as well as the Cesium Beam Atomic Clock which is used today as the world’s time standard.  Kari was born in 1966. In 1969, HP transferred Jack (and family) to Beverly Massachusetts for a year. That winter, Beverly experienced a “hundred-hour snowstorm of 1969”.  With over 8’-0” of snow, the family had to exit the house through a second-floor window (for a day).

While Jack continued working at Hewlett Packard for a total of 15 years, the family moved to San Jose and then to Los Altos Hills.  In 1978, Jack, Carol and Kari moved back to Seattle.  Jack worked as a civilian at the Puget Sound Navy Shipyard in Bremerton.  His main responsibility was retrofitting and upgrading ships that had returned for maintenance.  After living in three Seattle locations, Jack and Carol had a house built in Magnolia in 1985.  Jack retired in 1987.  In 2000 they had a second house built along the waterfront.  Jack and Carol enjoyed living down the hill from their daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren.  In 2023, Jack moved into Aegis Living onto the memory care floor, as did Carol.  Jack passed away from natural causes on September 5, 2025.

When Jack first married Carol, he didn’t know how to fix anything, but he tackled most every household problem, and became Mr. Fix It.  He was well organized.  He was a Boy Scout leader who enjoyed backpacking and camping.  He dug countless holes for Carol’s gardens.  He enjoyed photography his entire life.  While in Japan for an aircraft carrier ship check, he purchased a manual Nikon EM camera that he used for many years.  It was passed down to his daughter for years of use and is now enjoyed by his granddaughter.

Much of his life, Jack ate oatmeal for breakfast and loved a sweet treat for a mid-morning snack.  He liked to read, watch movies, take walks and pet every dog he saw.  Jack had a dry sense of humor, a great smile, and was never shy.  He was always curious, and he liked to explore, often ending up in places that he was not allowed.  He loved to “pick the brain” of most everyone he met.  Jack and his smile, wit and intellect are greatly missed.

Jack is survived by Carol (his wife of 68 years), his children, Jack Jr., Anne, Nancy, and Kari (with son-in-law Gordon), and his grandchildren, Alex, Victoria, Elizabeth and William.

On Wednesday, September 17, 2025, at 11:00, family gathered for a graveside ceremony for Jack at Lake View Cemetery, 1554 15th Ave. E., in Seattle.  A reception followed at Ivar’s Salmon House at North Lake Union.