| Graduation Year | Class of 1940 |
| Date of Passing | Sep 08, 2010 |
| About | Jack Sato of Sammamish, passed away on September 8, 2010 at Evergreen Hospital in Kirkland, WA following a series of strokes. He was 88. Jack was born on January 10, 1922 in Honolulu, Hawaii. In his younger years, he worked at a sugar cane factory, swam and bicycled for the high school teams, enjoyed photography and developing his own pictures. He played tennis until he was 80. He was an avid chess and poker player and enjoyed solving all sorts of puzzles. Jack was an eyewitness to the attack on Pearl Harbor. It inspired him to volunteer for the US Army, but at the time the army was very restrictive on admission of Japanese-Americans, so initially he was only allowed to join the reserves. Following the conclusion of hostilities, he was allowed to join the regular army and was stationed in post-war Germany. There he met his wife Elisabeth, a young German widow who had twin daughters.  He married Elisabeth on July 29, 1954 in Heidelberg, Germany. After marriage, they moved to the US to raise their family. He used the GI Bill to attend the University of Colorado, where he received a B.S. in chemical engineering, specializing in metallurgy.  His field took him to the steel mills in Gary Indiana, and then to a copper plant in Hammond Indiana where he worked the majority of his career. While living in Indiana, Jack and Elisabeth had two children, son Marc and daughter Kay.  After his retirement, Jack & Elisabeth moved to California to care for their son Marc who was seriously ill. Following Marc's death in 1995, they moved to Sammamish. Elisabeth predeceased Jack just six months ago. In her final 18 months, Elisabeth was a resident of a nursing home, and Jack's focus in life was visiting her daily.  Jack is survived by siblings: Larry Sato of Sammamish, WA, Mamoru Sato, Dorothy Ham and Ruth Torigoe of Honolulu, Hawaii; daughters: Evelyn (Kriss) Peters of Graham, WA; Sibylle (Larry) Horvath of Crown Point, IN, and Kay (Ron) Soukup of Sammamish, WA; Jack leaves behind five grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. Friends are invited to share memories and sign the family's online guest book at www.flintofts.com |
