John Joseph "Jack" Gladbach

John Joseph "Jack" Gladbach, 90, of Lenexa, KS, passed away at his home in Lenexa, KS on January 31, 2025. Jack was born on August 16, 1934, in Mendon, MO to Frederick and Catherine (Ryan) Gladbach. Jack is preceded in death by Margie, his loving wife of 65 years, son Steve, daughter Peggy Louree, granddaughter Megan Gladbach, brother Fred, sister Kathleen, and son-in-law Steve Norkus. He is survived by his children Joe (Chris), Kathleen Norkus, Tim (Joan), Ann (Tom) Graham, John (Joanne), Bill (Natalie), Jerry (Margarita), son-in-law Pete Louree and daughters-in-law Nona Gladbach and Ruth Cooke, 23 grandchildren, 9 great grandchildren, brother Jim Gladbach, and sister-in-law Mary Kay Gladbach.

Visitation will be held Saturday, February 8, 2005, from 9:30-10:30 am at St. Agnes Catholic Church, Roeland Park, KS followed by mass of Christian Burial at 10:30 am. For those unable to attend mass in person, please click here to view the livestream. Burial at Resurrection Catholic Cemetery in Lenexa, KS.

In lieu of flowers, Jack requested memorial contributions to some of his favorite charities:

Homes For Our Troops, supporting injured veterans

St. Vincent De Paul Society, supporting the poor and needy

 Envelopes in the vestibule of the church or your local chapter

These are just the traditional obituary facts. If you want to know who John ”Jack” Gladbach really was, please read on…

John “Jack” Gladbach was born at home in Mendon, MO on August 16, 1934 and grew up on a small family farm near there with his beloved parents Frederick and Catherine (Ryan) Gladbach, and his siblings Fred, Kathleen, and Jim. He delighted his children with stories of his idyllic upbringing on the farm where, being the youngest child, his only job was to feed and water the chickens. He later admitted, of course, that his brothers Fred and Jim, and sister Kathleen did the lion’s share of the work while he was busy playing and day dreaming. He recently shared a story about his beloved Grandma Anna, who sent him to the barn to collect corn cobs to burn as fuel in the stove. After about an hour or so, she showed up only to find that he had gathered a mere 2 cobs. He recalled that she was mad as a hornet and started filling the wheelbarrow herself, hurling every 3rd cob or so at Jack. He said he always felt bad about that because he really loved and respected her, but that he actually gained even more respect for her that day because of her reaction, and because he was so impressed that “she had a really good arm!”

He got in more than one fight defending his beloved green John Deere tractor over the “devil red” Farmall tractors that some of his classmates’ families owned. He had a great deal of respect for the American farmer, and was always so proud of his brothers Fred and Jim and Jim’s children for continuing the proud family tradition of farming. Jack literally never forgot his “roots” and carefully planted and tended several varieties of tomatoes, as well as peppers, lettuce, and beans every summer in his small backyard garden.

Jack’s family moved to Kansas City when he was 10 years old. That was the first time the family had electricity, running water, and indoor plumbing. For high school, he attended De La Salle Military Academy where he proudly played football under coach Godfrey Kobets. He played all 4 years as an offensive and defensive lineman and was team captain his senior year. Thanks to some help from his older siblings, Fred & Kathleen, and a football scholarship that coach Kobets helped him acquire, he was able to attend St. Benedict’s College in Atchison, KS. The St. Benedict’s Ravens won a conference championship in 1953 and he was selected in 1955 to play in the Senior Bowl in Hawaii, which he was unfortunately not able to attend, most probably for financial reasons. He received many accolades for his athletic prowess and although he was never a receiver, he considered his greatest athletic achievement “catching” his bride, Margaret “Margie” Schumacher, a red-headed co-ed at St. Benedict’s sister college, Mount Saint Scholastica.

He spent his sophomore year in the seminary at St. Benedicts, but God had other plans for him. He met Margie, married her after college and became a different kind of “Father” to 9 children. He graduated with a BA in Sociology from St. Benedict’s in May 1955 and having been convinced (or shanghaied) by his best friend Steve Sasenick to join the Navy, headed off with Steve to Newport, RI for 4 months of Officer Candidate School. Jack proposed to Margie at Steve and Pat (Dorney) Sasenick’s wedding in November of that year, and as Margie would tell the story, she was “pretty sure he was drunk”, but she accepted anyway.

Jack and Margie tied the knot themselves on July 7, 1956, honeymooned at Sea Island, Georgia and, were literally shipped off to Honolulu shortly thereafter, courtesy of the US Navy, so Jack got that trip to Hawaii after all!

He began his military career there at Naval Air Station Barbers Point, serving as the Combat Information Center Officer (CICO) aboard a WV-2 (Willy Victor-2), a stretched version of the Lockheed Super Constellation commercial airliner, converted for the military and equipped with radar to be used as the airborne wing of the DEW-line (Distant Early Warning Line), to cover gaps in the land and sea-based radar used to warn of possible incoming Soviet bombers or missiles during the Cold War.

Jack’s job was highly classified and when he deployed to Midway Island every couple of weeks for 18 day stretches, flying missions to the Aleutian Islands and back to Midway, all he could tell Margie was, “Well, I’m off again with the boys.” Talk about building trust early in a relationship! When his job was finally declassified, and he tried to explain it to his family, his eldest daughter Kathleen decided she was just gonna tell people he was “an airborne Cold War spy”.

Despite these frequent deployments, the Gladbach’s returned stateside in 1959 with 2 children and dog “Dutch” in tow. They eventually settled in Overland Park, KS, where they added 7 more children to the clan, who Jack coached, mentored, disciplined and, above all, loved. He worked various jobs, taught Jr High School, worked for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Rock Island and Missouri Pacific Railroads and finally the Jones Store Company before his retirement. He frequently worked overtime, or 2 jobs at a time, whatever was required to support the family. He continued his naval career as a reservist, eventually achieving the rank of Commander and serving 20 years.

Jack was dashing in his dress white Navy uniform, the epitome of an Officer and a “Gentle Man”. He had a lifelong respect for those who served, especially for those who served in theaters of war. He was humbled by his brother Fred’s service in the Korean War and proudly displayed a photo of Fred in uniform. Jack was passionate about caring for the veteran and was especially concerned about the mental and physical health of those returning from combat. He contributed regularly to veterans’ charities and his children recalled receiving impassioned letters from him prevailing upon them to vote out of respect for all those who made the ultimate sacrifice. 

Although his teaching career was brief, he was an educator at heart and insatiably curious, frequently sending one of his children to pull an encyclopedia from the bookshelf during dinner time to resolve a dispute or answer a question about any topic under the sun. What an honor to be chosen for this mission and having the sacred duty of reading aloud to the family from the Holy Book of Britannica.

Jack was a champion of the underdog, whether it was a person, a community, a team, or literally a dog. There is one young man who will likely never forget the dressing down he received from Jack when the man refused to retrieve his exhausted dog from Antioch Park Lake.

Jack understood that discipline came from the root word disciple, meaning “to teach”, and used these opportunities to impart a life lesson. He was a tireless advocate for social justice, and having come of age during the civil rights era, was deeply concerned about racism and the injustices committed against African Americans, indigenous peoples, and other marginalized groups. He called out racism wherever he saw or heard it. He practiced “If you see something, say something” before the phrase was ever coined. Jack and Margie joined a group called “Dinner for Ten” in the 1960’s, an interfaith and interracial group of five couples who had dinner together about six times a year at each other’s homes and discussed the social, political and religious issues of the day, finding common ground where they could and understanding where they disagreed.

Jack was an enthusiastic sports fan and could regale you with statistics and stories of baseball and football teams, players, and specific games going back decades. He always had a radio on, usually tuned to a game, when he was working in the yard or garage, or just tooling around the house. The soundtrack of his children’s lives were the voices of Denny Matthews and Mitch Holthus. He was a faithful supporter of the Kansas City Royals and Chiefs, even when they couldn’t beat a rug. He also proudly followed his beloved Benedictine Ravens, Missouri Tigers and Miege Stags. He saw sport as a way to build character and learn teamwork. He coached some of his children’s teams, and although his win/loss record was not particularly memorable, his players remembered they all got to play and that they all had fun.

While Margie made holidays fun, Jack always made them interesting. He was especially known for his holiday “Prayers” (aka dissertations) preceding Thanksgiving and Christmas meals. They were usually written on the back of legal envelopes (note the envelope size and plurality) and they could easily last a full 5 minutes. The lessons his children and anyone else fortunate enough to be present took away from these lengthy invocations were thankfulness, patience and that cold turkey is almost as good as warm turkey!

As Jack’s children became young adults, it was not unusual to find that your Christmas present from Dad was a goat of some chickens, which he quickly explained, upon “opening” of said gift, that he didn’t actually expect you to raise farm animals in your suburban backyard, rather that your present was actually bound for Afghanistan or Latin America to help some less fortunate family. Sure beats an ugly sweater that you were gonna return anyway.

When Christmas became so commercial that Jack was concerned about the meaning of the “Holy Day” being lost, he handcrafted a display from materials he found in the garage and attic. This beautiful creation consisted of a large colorful poster board cut-out of Santa Claus delivering the Christ Child (a “to scale” Baby Jesus cut-out) “down the chimney with care”, said chimney being made of 70’s era red brick wallpaper, all lovingly glued to a large piece of plywood and displayed against an oak trunk in the front yard, illuminated by a giant spotlight, lest any passersby miss the message.

There is no one word that describes Jack better than “devotion”, which Merriam Webster defines as “an intense love and steadfast enduring loyalty to a person; it may also imply consecration to a cause”.

Jack was devoted to his parents and siblings, his children and grandchildren, church and community, but no one thing or one person more so than his beloved wife of 65 years, Margaret “Margie” Schumacher Gladbach. It is evident from some love letters Margie wrote to Jack during their college courtship, which Jack saved, that he had to work hard to convince Margie’s family that he was worthy of her, and that Margie herself wrote many letters to her parents and brothers to persuade them that there was no man, in fact, more worthy of her hand in marriage. 

Lots of prayers and even novenas were prayed by both Jack and Margie so that they were invoking anyone on Earth and in Heaven that would listen. Thank God for all of us that those prayers were answered, and Margie’s parents eventually blessed the union. In the last 10 years of their life together, when Margie’s health declined to the point where she was eventually confined to a wheelchair and needed support for almost all her activities of daily living, Jack, although healthy himself and still having the passion for travel that they shared together, rarely left her side. After Margie was tucked in at night, Jack was often heard singing one of their favorite songs to her: “Oh! We ain`t got a barrel of money, Maybe we`re ragged and funny, But we`ll travel along, Singing a song, Side by side”, at which point Margie could be heard chiming in “side by side”. Now they are together again, on the greatest adventure of all, the Commander and the Navigator, the original ecotourists and budget travelers, travellin’ along, singing their song, side by side.