Dr. Heiden

Jack D. Heiden, 84, died Wednesday, February 28, 2018, in Madison Wisconsin, a city he loved and took pride in for all of the 65 years he lived there. Jack leaves behind his wife of 60 years, Nancy, his son Eric Heiden and daughter Elizabeth Heiden Reid, and five grandchildren who loved and admired him: Connor and Zoe Heiden from Park City; Garrett, Carl and Joanne Reid from California and points farther flung. Jack was the last of his siblings; his brothers George and Frank and his sister Betty all died before him.

Jack was born July 10, 1933, and grew up in Milwaukee, the youngest son of an industrial arts teacher from whom he absorbed a lifelong love of working with his hands. Jack's skilled hands made things and repaired things for as long as he was able. Jack fixed bones and tissues as a way to help many thousands of patients, but he also repaired lamps and rowing shells, bikes, and tires and wooden skis and shoes. If TV Lenny hadn't given away so many free ten-speed bicycles, Jack wouldn't have had to rescue and repair so many bikes from the dumpsters around town. Jack could be found most evenings in the same battered leather shoes he had worn for decades, and he treasured and rode his ancient Rudge three-speed bike as much as his beloved road racing bikes.

Jack was talented and hardworking, but a humble man. In life, he could not be importuned to highlight his own accomplishments, but his passing frees the rest of us to do so. Jack was a smoke-jumper and a railroad man, an orthopedic surgeon and a Big 10 champion fencer, a youth soccer coach and a masters rowing coach and a gracious man. Ever the enthusiast, Jack learned to bike race when his son did and learned to cross-country ski alongside his daughter, becoming masters national champion in road bike racing and one of the best master skiers in the Midwest. He rowed singles and a double with his wife and eights with the Mendota Rowing Club, and learned to roll a kayak and navigate a sailboard. Jack taught himself archery and tennis, swatting tennis balls across the net with his daughter as she refined her skills. He learned to play hockey when his son was playing and spent years volunteering on the bench. He took his kids and their friends on canoe trips to the Boundary Waters, reveling in fishing, paddling and portaging, telling campfire stories all the while even tolerating mosquitoes. He was a happy man while accompanying his wife Nancy on birdwatching trips, paddling, hiking and biking the trails of Wisconsin.

Later in life, Jack bought a used biathlon rifle and earned his redbook certification in biathlon. As the son of an industrial arts teacher he felt the symbiosis of wood and steel in a biathlon rifle, and admiring its use in snow, he tried to master the skill that it demands. Mastery eluded him, but his granddaughter adopted the old rifle, named it in his honor and carried it forward with distinction. Jack's fading memory left him unable to remember his old rifle, whether his children had won athletic medals, or eventually even his grandchildren, but his joy in hearing about his family and friends was undimmed, each time anew. And that, more than anything else, captures the Jack Heiden that his family admired and loved.

A life richly lived is too large to convey in a brief history or anecdotes. Age distills each of us down to our essence, one that we hope is worthy. As darkness took him into the deep, Jack Heiden kept his joy and enthusiasm and his pleasure in simple things, and especially in the good fortune of others; similarly, his joy in equal partnership with a small floppy dog named Einstein was palpable. Mixed with our sadness at his passing is our admiration; it is our fervent hope that our love and admiration will help him along on his journey to the heaven he earned, but did not believe in.

Jack will be returned to the earth April 21st in a private burial at the Natural Path Sanctuary on Spring Rose Road, carried to rest in a handmade casket by the family who loved him. A reception honoring Jack's life will be held following the burial, from 11:30 AM - 2:00 PM Saturday, April 21st at the University of Wisconsin's Pyle Center Alumni Lounge, 702 Langdon Street. Those who wish to honor Jack are encouraged to contribute to one of the causes Jack believed in, or perhaps to ride their oldest bike along Willow Drive Lakeshore Path amidst the trees, the lake, the sky and the bustling people.

Thoughts or stories can be submitted here, or mailed to a family member; causes Jack believed in included the International Crane Foundation, The Nature Conservancy, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum.

Jack's family would like to offer deepest thanks to the staff at Covenant Oaks at Oakwood, and to the angels in waiting from Agrace Hospice. As we mourn the dead it is too easy to forget the attentiveness and kindness that softens life's sunset.


Cress Funeral & Cremation Services
3610 Speedway Road
(608) 238-3434