John “Jack” Joseph Lawler III, 75, passed away in the company of his wife on Friday August 16, 2024, at the Mitchell County Regional Health Center. Jack was generous, kind, a loving father and husband, and lived an incredible life walking the truth of Jesus Christ. He will be missed every day by those who felt his love and shared in his laughter.
Jack was born at St. Anne’s Hospital in Chicago, Illinois, on November 29, 1948, his grandmother’s answered prayer. Jack was the son of John (also going by “Jack”) Joseph Lawler Jr. and Marian Janet Lawler (Allum), and the great-great-grandson of one of Northwood’s founders, Charles Adam Wardall. Jack would attend high school at Oak Park and River Forest High, where his talents in biology and science earned him a distinguished scholarship and admission to Loyola University Chicago. Jack always blazed his own trails, and he would soon leave Illinois for work in Montana as a logger, beginning his deep care for the outdoors and wild places.
Truly a man of all trades, Jack would lend his skills to impressive development projects, including construction operations at the Flathead Tunnel and Libby Dam in Montana, working for the US Bureau of Reclamation at Ririe Dam and the Teton Dam in Idaho. He was employed as a materials engineer and purchasing manager for S.J. Groves Construction, managing the Idaho Falls Hydroelectric project on the Snake River, Lock and Dam No. 26 in Alton, Illinois, and managing several million-dollar projects for the US Army Corps of Engineers. He chartered two companies, Pioneer Contracting and American Contracting and Engineering, Inc., serving for the latter as its director, before moving to California to work as a Consulting Contract Administrator and Project Engineer for Whalen & Company in San Francisco. After moving around the country, he finally returned to Northwood, Iowa to manage his family farm and raise his family.
While working in Idaho, Jack began his Masters of Sciences education at the University of Idaho in Moscow, Idaho, for land use management. There he would meet his wife, Colleen, while both attended a computing course. They would be married a year later on September 22, 1979, in Kimberly, Idaho, and build their life together moving cross-country multiple times, and even to Canada. He enjoyed writing, photography, collecting coins, keeping tropical fish, and model trains and planes, all hobbies he shared with his wife. Jack was also an avid outdoorsman, a Pope and Young record-holding hunter, but fishing was his favorite. Jack and Colleen would always make time to travel West, go camping, fishing, and spend time with family in beautiful places.
Jack was preceded in death by his parents, John and Marian Lawler, and his brother, James Lawler. He is survived by his wife of 45 years, Lois Colleen Lawler (Willis), his son, John Joseph Lawler IV, and his daughter, Janet Marie Lawler (Benjamin Clay Helms).
A private graveside service will be held on Monday August 19, 2024, at the State Line Cemetery in Northwood, Iowa. Jack, in a way, will be buried at home and surrounded by family, as the cemetery grounds were originally the corner of his family’s heritage farm (est. 1857) and are the resting place of his parents, grandparents, and more family. In lieu of flowers and condolences, please send donations with note “In Memory of Jack Lawler” to the Mitchell County Regional Health Center, whose doctors and staff cared deeply for him and his family in his final days.
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