Every Friday for 22 years Jack Whittier delivered groceries to the elderly, disabled and other shut-ins.
“He was our longest-time volunteer,” said Elsie Quillen, coordinator for the Lord’s Pantry food bank in Commerce City.
Whittier died of a stroke Sept. 1. He was 78.
“He was dedicated at everything he did,” Quillen said. “He was a nice, good Christian man.”
Whittier stayed to visit those he delivered groceries to, she said.
“The visiting is half of it,” she said. “Some of our people don’t see anyone from Friday to Friday because their families don’t visit or they live somewhere else.”
The Lord’s Pantry gets food from Food Bank of the Rockies, and the sacks distributed each Friday by the 35 volunteers last each recipient a week. The bags include fresh fruits and vegetables.
“They were always happy to see Jack,” Quillen said, adding that sometimes he would visit 17 to 20 homes in a day.
The volunteers, including Whittier, also ran errands, moved furniture and picked up prescriptions. Volunteers “sometimes pay for the prescriptions. The people we help sometimes can either buy food or medicine.”
He delivered groceries the week before he died, said his son, Tim Whittier of Arvada.
Jack Whittier was as dedicated to his job as a mechanic and sometimes foreman for Public Service Co., now Xcel, said Tim Whittier. He worked on turbines at power plants.
He had been trained to do similar work while in the Navy, serving on the USS Sierra.
“When he retired, he had one year of sick leave built up. He just never got sick,” said Tim Whittier.
Jack C. Whittier was born in Sterling on June 5, 1930, and joined the Navy after graduating from high school.
He married Patsy Taylor on Dec. 31, 1953. They had met at a dance, and afterward Taylor told her mother, “I met the man I’m going to marry.”
They moved to Commerce City in 1957.
Whittier served four years as pastor of the Commerce City Church of Christ. Though he had no training, “he knew the Bible and had an extensive library of reference material,” Tim Whittier said. “He loved preaching. They told him there would be no pay, but he said that was OK.”
In addition to his wife and son, Whittier is survived by his daughter, Judy Broderick of Thornton; another son, Steve Whittier of Denver; his sister, Jo Anne Whittier of Thornton; seven grandchildren; and one great-grandchild.
Virginia Culver: 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com
