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.

[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.]