John Jay Weikel

John Jay Weikel was born April 2, 1940, in Columbus, Montana, and left this world on July 13, 2026 in Conroe, Texas, at the age of 86. He was born to Arthur and Elsie Weikel of Absarokee. He grew up on the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains and spent his early years fishing and hunting in the foothills of southern Montana. Yellowstone National Park was less than an hour away and the Stillwater River was his backyard.

John, or "Uncle Jack" as his family knew him, survived polio in his youth and went on to play high school football until a knee injury sidelined him for good. He graduated from Absarokee High School in 1958. Like most teenage boys, he and his friends loved to build cars with big motors to go fast. At one point, he and his pals had the fastest car at the drag strip. After graduation, he enlisted in the United States Marine Corp; where he spent the bulk of his service stationed in Okinawa from 1960 to 1964 as a communications specialist in the 1st Infantry, 3rd Marine Division. After serving his country, he came home to Montana where he used his GI Bill to start college at Montana State University in Bozeman. He worked as a mechanic while attending school in the winter and continued his government service in the summer working at Yellowstone National Park as a cowboy riding the back country building & clearing trails for the tourists. When he left his service at Yellowstone Park, he had been Trail Boss for four years.

The summer right after leaving the Marines, he went to Alaska to visit his sister and brother-in-law, Bill & Helen Burgess. He instantly fell in love with the Land of the Midnight Sun and knew he would return someday.

In the summer of 1968, he met the woman he would spend the rest of his life with. Lois came to Absarokee for a Dude Ranch vacation from Minnesota, she never left. Jack swept her off her feet and they were married on December 29,1969. He moved his new ready-made family to Bozeman to complete his last semester of college. He graduated from Montana State University in May of 1970. He promptly took the corporate CPA exams, which he passed on the first try. After he had his credentials, he took off to Alaska to find a job. Within 2 weeks he landed a job with Mobil Oil Corp in the accounting department. He spent a couple years with them until they came to an impasse on benefits. He left and went to work for the IRS, but within a year, Mobil came back to offer a substantial raise and the benefits he deserved. He spent the next 33 years with the company and retired at 63, though the last 4 years he was on call as needed for the Exxon merger. He was known by friends and co-workers as the most ethical man they knew in his time with Mobil Oil.

His hobbies were fishing and hunting. He loved the mountains and rivers of Alaska and made sure his sons learned to appreciate and enjoy the outdoors. Every year, he and his brother-in-law, Bill Burgess, would take 10 days to go north into the mountains and bring home a moose for the freezers to last the winter. Every weekend of the summer he would load us up and go fishing. We went all over Alaska depending on where the salmon were running. We were never hungry. In his later years, after retirement, he took many hunting trips to Canada, Alaska, Montana, Colorado and even went as far as Namibia, West Africa. He was a Life Member of the VFW in Columbus, MT, and enjoyed serving the community in his later years.

He is survived by his wife of 56 years Lois Weikel; son, Jeffrey Nott & wife Wanda, son, John Weikel. Numerous nieces and nephews, too many to list; and a cousin, Judy Stewart of Arkansas. He was preceded in death, by his father & mother Arthur & Elsie; sisters, Helen Burgess, Hazel Erickson, and Mavis Moore.

There will be no memorial service at this time, but we intend to have a celebration of life on a date and location yet to be determined.