Jack Lee Coffman

Jack Lee Coffman March 18, 1944- June 9, 2021 Jack Coffman, who just might have been the most stubborn man you ever met, passed away at the age of 77 at his home in Olathe, Ks. on June 9, 2021. He was born March 18, 1944 as the first child and only son of Virginia Lee (Myers) Coffman and Eulan (Dude) Coffman. Friends and family often called him “Little Dude” and he may have gotten his “stubborn streak” from his dad! Team mates, coaches and teachers at Anthony High School talked of his “track” talent as he did like to run. He had a talent for playing the piano, but his music teacher died before she taught him to read music, so he continued playing by “ear”. You did not tell Jack something could not be done as he would work to find a solution to the problem. Jack attended Ark City Jr. College, and was instrumental in starting the first Student Union group. He went on to Northwestern Oklahoma State University. He took classes in art and woodwork and thought he might teach High School. He took business classes and had great pride in matching or exceeding the girls in the number of words per minute he got from the old IBM Selectric typewriter. Jack’s first job was delivering newspapers at dawn, he also worked in the meat department at Supreme Market, pumped gas at Kleppe’s filling station, worked on the Burkholder farm near Harper, KS, and stocked grocery shelves at Grosse’s in Ark City. His first “after college” job was working for Dun and Bradstreet. In his free time, he installed antennas for Bob’s TV. In 1972, Jack and Dude bought Bob’s TV. He met and married the County Extension Home Economics Agent, Crystal Reimer in 1973. They bought their first 4 TV’s on floor plan and had 6 months to sell them. Three weeks later he needed more TVs to sell! In 1984 he added Radio Shack to the business. He won many awards and trips for selling TV’s and white goods. Jack was active in Kiwanis, The Anthony Chamber of Commerce, Anthony Masons, and Harper County Shrine Club where he served in many leadership roles. He has the first “Anthony Buck” that was printed as a means to keep the Chamber Christmas drawing for money in town to be spent at Chamber businesses. The Harper County Shrine Club members Little Bucking T’s were the brainchild of Jack’s to go with the big Bucking T at parades. He was one of the big boys with little toys! After the family moved to Paola, Kansas in 1988, he worked selling real estate, assisted travelers with ticket sales for America West, made reservations for the State Farm Insurance Disaster teams at EDS, supervised inmates at “Lansing South” (better known as Osawatomie Correctional Facility), inspected houses for the Housing Authority of Kansas City (MO.). In his “spare” time, he established Pro Home Inspectors and Medallion Healthy Homes servicing Kansas and Missouri counties with mold inspection, remediation and Radon testing and mitigation, and odor removal using an Ozonation process. Health issues forced Jack to retire and sell the businesses in 2016. Jack was never far away from working with his hands. He assembled and installed many satellite dishes for rural customers in the Anthony area. He made and sold Purple Martin Houses, remodeled the family home, installed a cabin at Anthony Lake and added a massive deck to the family home in Paola. He repaired and updated two rental houses and purchased and “flipped” houses in Ottawa and Osawatomie Kansas. Jack and Crystal have two sons, Jerry Lee Coffman (deceased) and Daniel Lee Coffman, wife Paola and 3 granddaughters, Karla, Katie and Kelly of Lenexa. Both parents, Gin and Dude, are deceased. Jack has 2 sisters, Cheryl (John) Sheetz of Norwich, KS, and Kathy (Tom-deceased) Greiner of Milford, Pennsylvania. He has numerous nieces and nephews, plus other cousins and relatives too numerous to mention. In his final weeks, he was able to enjoy transferring super 8 movie film to digital, and the antics of the backyard squirrels coming to eat at the feeder he built. This brought many laughs during the stressful months of Covid. Jack would say that time is short, find something to laugh at every day, memories are great to make and travel every chance you get. In lieu of flowers donations can be made to the Miami County 4-H Foundation, 913 N. Pearl, Suite 1, Paola KS 66067 or Vitas Healthcare, 8527 Bluejacket St., Lenexa, KS 66214. A Celebration of Life event is planned for Thursday July 1 from 5 to7 p.m. at the Marais des Cygnes Extension District Paola Office 913 N. Pearl ST., Suite 1. There will be a Celebration of Life held in Anthony, Ks. on July 2 at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church with Mass at 5:30 and Graveside at 6:30 p.m. You can visit www.dengelmortuary.com and leave a post on the website for the family. And to the girls who had secret crushes on Jack in high school but he never knew until many years later, he always wanted to say “you snooze you lose”.