Jack Ash Project – Scattering Schedule

Jack Longacre’s final wish was to have his ashes scattered on the high points of all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Jean Trousdale, a close friend of six years, took the responsibility of making sure it happened. After Jack died of cancer in October 2002, Trousdale spent the next year coordinating a nationwide set of memorial ceremonies for him.

More than 600 people have taken part in scattering Jack, but Trousdale was the only person who had the job of putting Jack’s remains into 51 separate film canisters, which Jack had marked with the names of each state. She didn’t know if it was going to freak her out or not, she says, but a man’s last wish is a man’s last wish, so she sat down with the canisters, a roll of bubble wrap, 51 Ziploc bags, 51 boxes, and a box of ashes that used to be her friend.

I just scooped them out,” Trousdale says. “Just took the little canister, dipped the ashes out and wiped the canister off.” Before he died. Jack had shown her how he wanted her to seal each canister before mailing it. “I’ve dealt with ashes before,” Trousdale says. “They’re just calcium.

The following is a tentative list of persons responsible for scattering Jack Longacre’s ashes on the state highest points as part of the “Jack Ash Project”. All dates are in 2002 unless explicitly specified.

State Date Lead
Alabama April 10 Gary White
Alaska May 31 Rick Hartman
Arizona June 21 Bob Packard
Arkansas May 25 David & Brenda Young
California Sept 10 Penelope May
Colorado June 22 M. Maurer and G. Vandersluis
Connecticut April 26 Leon Barkman
Delaware May 11 Joe Snoha
District of Columbus April 4 Robert Hyman
Florida Mar 22 Jon Mann
Georgia June 29 Craig & Mary Jane Noland
Hawaii May 26 David & Debbie Fees
Indiana April 12 Nikki Hemphill and Wayne Stitt
Idaho early Aug Vince Golbeck and Charlie Lutomski
Illinois Aug 2 Paul Zumwalt
Iowa Aug 3 Wendy Hecht
Kansas March 22 Diane & Charlie Winger
Kentucky April 26 Aaron & Anna Daniel
Louisiana May 22 M. Luke and R. Scott
Maine June 14 Carl Rosenthal
Maryland May 10 Gene & Lillian Elliott
Massachusetts May 24 Peter Anderson
Michigan April 25 D. Whitehead and G. Johnson
Minnesota July 29 Jan & Ray Nelson
Mississippi May 3 Fred Dale
Missouri Nov 16 ’02 Faith & Paul Light
Montana Aug 5 Larry Baker
Nebraska March 23 John Mitchler
Nevada Sept 17 Rick Hartman
New Hampshire June 21 Rick Moore
New Jersey April 27 Al Welenofsky
New Mexico July 5 Rich Small
New York Sept 6 Roger Rowlett
North Carolina June 28 Sherm Stambaugh
North Dakota July 17 Carol Emlen
Ohio April 12 Mark & Wendy Comstock
Oklahoma Dec 6 ’02 Jean Trousdale
Oregon June 22 Dave & Beckie Covill
Pennsylvania May 10 Sam & Sue Snyder
Rhode Island July 5 Chuck Bickes
South Carolina Mar 29 Bob Failing
South Dakota June 6 David Gwinn
Tennessee April 11 Tim Webb
Texas Sept 27 Buddy & Tresa Gilchrest
Utah June 15 Alan Bean
Vermont June 14 Norm & Kip Smith
Virginia May 17 Jean Sumner
Washington ’04 Will Mokszycki
West Virginia May 11 Jean & Jerry Wagener
Wisconsin July 30 Jim Sutton
Wyoming July ’04 Don Holmes

[Ed: The introductory text is paraphrased from pages 19-20 of Brendan Leonard’s thesis “Because it is there“. You can read his full article on the “Jack Ash Project” (pages 19-33) for more information.]

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