- Date Of Birth: June 10, 1951
- Date Of Death: October 14, 2010
- State: Colorado
John Basner Jr.
June 10, 1951 to October 14, 2010
John Basner Jr. was born in Wood-Ridge N.J., the first son of Mary (Szpila) and John Basner Sr. They referred to him as “Jackie”. He played football and baseball throughout school and was written up in the news as “the diminutive speedster”. He graduated from Wood-Ridge High School and attended Stevens Institute of Technology where he dormed on a docked ‘ship’ on the Hudson River and found a few “not-so-nerdy” people to become close to.
After receiving his degree in civil engineering, ‘Jack’ traveled cross-country. He decided Boulder would be a good place to settle for a while. He worked for the State of Colorado and after a number of years, joined the forces of the Highway Engineers. He always had such pride in his work. While riding, you would hear: “That’s my bus ramp.” “There’s my bridge.” His greatest pride and work-joy came as construction manager for ‘T-Rex’. He loved the work, he loved the people, and there was a mutual respect between him and co-workers. We have much T-Rex memorabilia in our home!
During this time period, Jack married Nita (Grobar) and had two beautiful daughters, Stephani and Brooke, who everyone got tired of hearing about! He was a proud father. He did some soccer coaching for both girls and loved? going to their “Nutcracker” dance productions each year. He bowled on the ‘Foul Five’ highway team, played golf in the highway league and played softball for years on the ‘*** Faults’ highway team. These sports involved a lot of after-sport “socializing” and Jack was a great storyteller. Those were fun years!
