John “Jack” Ahrens

March 26, 1996

I first met Jack Ahrens when I was in the eighth grade at St. Rose of Lima’s and he attended Millburn Junior High. It was at Miss Chalif’s ballroom dance class at the Racquets Club. The dance floor was filled with couples and one couple bumped into my partner and I. I thought nothing of it until they bumped us again. I turned and yelled over “hey, watch it!” A heavy set guy looked back and he and his partner just laughed. It infuriated me.

The following year in ninth grade at Millburn Junior High I went out for freshman football. One of the dozens of other players turned out to be none other than my adversary from Miss Chalif’s: Jack Ahrens. I remember thinking, “There’s that jerk from dance class.”
It didn’t take long, though, for me to realize that Jack had a quick wit. His sense of humor is what drew me to him. He was downright funny. He could always see the humor, even in seemingly unfunny situations.

After high school we remained friends. I was in his wedding and he was in mine. When I was transferred to Pittsburgh and eventually moved to Chicago, I didn’t see Jack as often but we did get together at least annually. One of the contributing factors to this was the fact that his wife Marge and my wife Stephanie got along so well. Stephanie’s comment about Marge was, “She’s Jack’s best audience.” We would vacation with them at our family’s house in Seacrest Beach. Often Rob and Donna Batch would be with us and we would have a mini reunion with Todd and Sue Gallagher, Wayne and Sharon Mascia and Walt and Adele Rummel.

We traveled with Marge and Jack twice to Eleuthera in the Bahama’s. Every trip and every vacation would result in a treasure chest of funny stories. It couldn’t be otherwise with Jack there. As soon as we’d get together we’d revert to our Millburn High days and Jack would say a word or two and it would trigger the sophomoric laughs.

I was so grateful that we as a group took a cruise to the Caribbean in February 1994. The group included: Rob and Donna Batch, Walt and Adele Rummel, Marge and Jack Ahrens and Stephanie and I. We pretty much stayed to ourselves and of course laughed our way through the islands of Curacao, Granada, St. Lucia and Barbados. It was a great trip and, ironically, was a year before Jack died of cancer.

Often some situation or event will occur and I think: “Jack would have laughed his rear end off at that.” I still miss him.

~ Alex (Al) Handy