Close to 100, a life-long Pennsylvania hunter looks back at life

Harrisburg — Jack Lewis, of Bethlehem, Pa. was featured in Pennsylvania Outdoor News a few years ago when he famously shot a bear at age 96. As his 100th birthday approaches this fall, he has the experiences of a century during what arguably could be called the most dramatic period of life change in all of human history.

Jack certainly has seen some things. He was born in the middle of the “Roaring Twenties” when only half of American households had electricity. Radio was the most common way to get news and entertainment. A new Ford Model T would set you back $295, but many people still depended on streetcars and bikes to get around.

Television was just in an experimental phase, but by the time he started his own family, there was at least one television in the average American home.

Jack chose to enlist in the Navy at the age of 17 after Pearl Harbor was bombed in World War II.  He signed up even before he graduated from High School near Bethlehem.

He actually witnessed the raising of the American Flag (twice) on Iwo Jima’s Mount Suribachi from the USS Biscayne. Not many men alive today can say that.

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He got married in 1950 and raised five children – three daughters and two sons with his wife Irene.

His faith has always been very important to him and his Catholic upbringing was key to him getting through some of the most difficult times in his life.

He went hunting for the first time with his best friend, Leo, and his dad when he was about 12. He loved spending time in the woods and learning how to track and push game in hunting groups and how to fish as well.

He started to hunt with a group of friends in high school and then returned to hunting after a brief break following his military service.  The men he hunted with during his early career and while raising his family had a significant influence in his life. He recently told me this amazing story about how the friends he made hunting and fishing became some of the most influential relationships in his life outside of his family.

Everybody knows that going hunting and fishing is a bit of production. There is the preparing, the planning, the packing – sometimes to be in an area where phoning a friend for help won’t be an option. Then there is the traveling to the spot where the fishing or the hunting will happen.

There is quite a lot of time to talk and get to know each other. Jack explained that while his wife probably had a different idea of what these guys would talk about for days on these trips, he chuckled when he recalled how often the trips had an element of group problem solving on the side of their hunting and fishing adventures.

It would often start out as a singular mild complaint. One guy would be struggling with repairing the family car. Someone on the trip would inevitably say – “hold on, I know how to fix that!”

The one time they were about to go on a group trip to Canada – one of the guys suddenly had to back out due to a family commitment. All the remaining hunters were panicking about trying to add someone else into the close-knit group at the last minute.

Well, one of the guys knew a guy and so, long story short – he jumped into the spot. Jack smiled as he reflected on the wild journey that particular substitution to the hunting party started.

That guy, named George – was an insurance salesman and a decent investor and he and Jack spent time in a hunting blind watching, waiting and getting to know each other. Jack asked him questions about insurance and investing, as he barely new what his pension was or how it was invested.

This was by no means a one-way relationship at all. In fact, over the years Jack would do a number of construction projects for his friends and even accompany them on trips to determine if a real estate purchase was as presented by the buyer and what repairs were reasonable and which ones were deal breakers.

Jack recalls that this group of five men got him through all sorts of tight spots in life and were a constant source of entertainment, education and support. Jack credits the investment and insurance advice he received from George as being key in his ability to put five kids through college.

Jack made a point to emphasize that every guy was where he was supposed to be – the guy that stayed home because his wife was having a baby was in the right place. The guy who stepped into a last-minute opportunity to hunt with a new group of friends was also in the right place.

(Lauren Silvers serves as the Legacy Project Coordinator at Lifesong Hospice & Palliative Care, where she specializes in legacy preparation by turning patients’ life stories, memories and significant personal moments into tangible keepsakes for their families.)