Robert W. Jackson, 1923-2009
Robert W. “Bob” Jackson, 86, died Tuesday, December 29, 2009, at the Meadowlark Hills Retirement Community, Bramlage House, in Manhattan.
The family provided some of the following information.
He was born February 5, 1923, in Salina, the son of S. Willard and Florence Woody Jackson. He served in the Army from 1945 until 1947. Bob then attended Kansas State College and graduated in May of 1948 with a B.S. in architectural engineering. Mr. Jackson then taught structural design at Iowa State University and earned a M.S. in economic history and political science.
In 1952, he moved his family to Kansas City and worked for several architectural firms as well as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. From 1957 until 1960, Jackson served as the chief hospital architect of the seven-state Midwest region for the U.S. Public Health Service.
Mr. Jackson started his own architectural firm, Robert W. Jackson Associates, in 1960 in Kansas City, Missouri. His practice specialized in all-private-room hospital architecture as well as design, consulting and renovation of health care facilities. His many projects included Geary County Hospital in Junction City and Osteopathic Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri.
He was an early and enthusiastic advocate of all-private-room hospitals. Bob wrote and published articles on hospital and mental health facility design for national hospital magazines and lectured at several universities and hospitals. He was a licensed professional engineer in Kansas and holds the National Council of Architectural Registration Board’s Certificate.
Jackson retired in 1981, and became an adjunct faculty member of the University of Kansas in the departments of Architecture, Architectural Engineering and Graduate School of Engineering Management. He moved to Manhattan in 1984 to be the interim active director of planning for Kansas State University. He then joined Kansas State’s adjunct faculty and taught in the Departments of Architecture, Interior Architecture and Architectural Engineering.
Bob was a member of the Beta Theta Pi Fraternity, Rotary International, Kansas State and Iowa State Alumni Association. He was a member of Trinity Presbyterian Church, where he served on the Board of Deacons. He was a founding member of the National Society of Architectural Engineers and a member of the National Association for Hospital Planning. He was listed in “Who’s Who in the Midwest” in 1967 and “Who’s Who in Finance and Industry” in 1980. He was a former member of the governing board of the Riley County Seniors’ Service Center and served on the board of the Meadowlark Hills Retirement Community.
On October 21, 1945, he was married to Thelma Dahl. Mrs. Jackson survives of the home. During their 64 years of marriage, the Lord blessed them with a wonderful family: Jane Jackson and her husband David Bonner of Lexington, Massachusetts; Robert Michael Jackson and his wife Nancy Crandall of Lakewood, Colorado; and Nancy Jackson Driscoll and her husband Brian of Encinitas, California; as well as his grandchildren, Aaron Bonner-Jackson and his wife Kia Treier, Kate Bonner-Jackson, Reiley Driscoll Bender and her husband Scott, Courtney Driscoll, Connor Driscoll, Christopher Jackson and his wife Kelly Long Jackson, and Cody Jackson. He is also survived by one sister, Vera Seeling, of Sun City West, Arizona.
He was preceded in death by his parents and a sister, Helen Payton.
Memorial services for Mr. Jackson will be held at 1:30 p.m. Saturday, January 9, at the Trinity Presbyterian Church, 1110 College Avenue, Manhattan. Private inurnment will take place at a later date at the Sunrise Cemetery.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Trinity Presbyterian Church or to the Meadowlark Hills, Good Samaritan Fund, and may be left in care of the Yorgensen-Meloan-Londeen Funeral Home, 1616 Poyntz Avenue, Manhattan, KS 66502.
Online condolences may be left for the family through the funeral home website at www.ymlfuneralhome.com