A life of service and quiet grace
Jack Bernard Wilkers was born in the spring of 1952 in Springfield, Ohio, the second of four children. He was, by every account, a boy who listened more than he spoke — a trait that would later make him the kind of pastor people drove across two counties to confide in.
After serving as a chaplain in the U.S. Army, Jack returned home and answered a quieter calling. In 1986 he took the pulpit at First Covenant Church, where he would remain for forty years. He baptized three generations, married hundreds of couples, and sat at countless bedsides — never once, his family insists, forgetting a single name.
He loved black coffee, the Cleveland Guardians, his wife Ruth's cinnamon bread, and the particular hush of an empty sanctuary at dawn. He is survived by Ruth, their three children, nine grandchildren, and a congregation that became, over four decades, simply family.
A life, in moments
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