John “Jack” Roland Colahan, Jr.

Jack was born March 26, 1928 in Butte, MT to John R. Colahan Sr. and Stella Driscoll Colahan.  He passed away peacefully on January 21, 2013.  After moving from Butte to the Reno area, he spent most of his childhood years in Seattle.  He attended O’Dea HS graduating in 1946.

In his youth, he played basketball, softball and handball.  One of his fondest memories was playing basketball against Seattle U’s O’Brien twins, John and Eddie.  He enjoyed every minute of the sport.  In addition, he played in handball leagues during the 60’s and 70’s at the Connolly Center where he spent a great deal of time.

Jack was employed by Sears, where he met the love of his life, Phyllis Whiteaker Colahan.  After a short three-month courtship, they were married on December 2, 1949.

Jack worked 42 years for Sears, working his way up to Merchandise Manager for the West Coast.   In the mid-70’s, he belonged to Rainier Golf and Country Club and Glenacres Golf and Country Club.  His job took him to Huntington Beach, CA in 1980, where he had his first “hole-in-one” on a local course.  He retired and built a home in Fountain Hills, AZ in 1988 – 360 days of sunshine and a minimum of playing golf two days a week.  A perfect day for Jack was playing a round of golf, coming home, watching a ball game or sitting by the pool, sipping on a beer and enjoying the sunshine.

Fond memories are also shared with his grandchildren.  Travis in particular fondly remembers the trips the two of them took to select just the perfect donuts from King Donut.  On one trip when returning home, Travis (being 4 years old) proudly got out of the car, dropped the box of donuts on the driveway spilling all the contents.  Papa just got back in the car and went back to select another dozen.  Travis also remembers the fun trips to Disneyland, riding the bumper boats at Crackerjacks, and the numerous trips to Saguaro Lake enjoying the all-you-can-eat Fish Fry’s.

Kristin remembers all the spring breaks in Arizona enjoying the sunshine and swimming in their pool.  Each of their bedrooms had an outside entrance to the pool area and one morning as she was about to go take a swim, she spotted a small snake just outside her door.  Papa was there to save the day!  She also remembers the sing-alongs in Papa’s car when we all belted out “Achey Breaky Heart” by Billy Ray Cyrus. We were glad no one could hear our rendition !!  His car was rockin’ !

Jack was a wonderful person, a true Irishman.  He was loving and kind, but also stubborn and he loved to party.  He never needed a reason to entertain family and friends.  He was one of the original “12^th Man” fan of the Seahawks and a follower of the Mariners, even when he lived out of state.

He was preceded in death by his parents, his young son, John III, and his sister, Marie McCool.  He is survived by his loving wife of 63 years, Phyllis,

his son and daughter-in-law, Mike and Pat Colahan, grandchildren Kristin (Yan) Fatien living in France (great-grandchildren Jonah and Blake), and Travis Colahan living in Los Angeles.  We will think of him often and miss his sparkling blue eyes.  Whenever we hear Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York”, we will think of him.  Most of all we’ll miss his “dry” Grandpa jokes. We love you Papa.

Funeral services February 7, 2013 at 11 AM at Holyrood Cemetery Chapel, 205 NE 205^th St. Shoreline, WA 98155