John Gerald Hansen

John Gerald Hansen died on April 21, 2021, at his home south of Colby. He was 89.

He was born on March 18, 1932, in Kearney, Nebraska. His parents had moved there from Thomas County to be nearer to family. He was the third of three children born to John Hansen and Sadie K. (Jensen) Hansen, after sisters Lillian Elaine and Verna Jean. All three Hansen children, oddly, were called by their middle names.

The Hansen family moved back to Thomas County in 1948. Gerald finished his last two years of school at Colby Community High School, graduating in 1950. His lifelong love of basketball was born of his experience playing on the Colby varsity. He later enjoyed demonstrating his two-handed “Dolph Schayes shot” for his sons and their teammates. Throughout his life, he was known to cold-callers as John, to friends and relatives as Jerry, and to his oldest pals as Ole (“o-lee”), the inevitable nickname for a tall, fair Scandinavian fellow.

Gerald attended Kansas State College from 1950 to 1953. Drafted into the army, he served in a mobile radar unit based at Karlsruhe, Germany. He played on the base volleyball and softball teams and traveled the continent on leaves. He also established contact with his mother’s cousins in Denmark, with whom she had corresponded but had never met.

Gerald completed his college education at Fort Hays State College as a mathematics major, graduating in 1957. He returned to Thomas County to farm with his father. Soon after, he met a new teacher at the high school, Joyce Larson. Both were pleased that the Colby superintendent, R. L. Dennen, approved the match. They married in Joyce’s hometown of Concordia, Kansas, on June 23, 1957. They moved on to the family farmstead south of Mingo, homesteaded by Gerald’s paternal grandfather Fred in the 1880s but unoccupied since the thirties. Before fixing up the house, they had to remove the wheat that had been piled in the living room. The couple had three sons, John Mark, David, and Ron.

Gerald was a man who expressed himself through his actions rather than his words. He would not have said it, but he was proud of having provided for his family, having stewarded, improved, and increased the farm through a third generation, having championed Joyce’s career in teaching, having supported his sons as they found their own paths in life, having enjoyed the progress of his grandchildren – all girls! – and having maintained a farmstead that was spic-and-span and planted his wheat, corn, milo, and beans in rows that were straight as an arrow.

He was a member of the Odd Fellows and the VFW and participated actively in their goings-on. He worshiped at the Colby Methodist Church. His friendships expanded to include new additions to the Colby community and several Coloradans who first came out to hunt his draws and stubble fields. Later in life, he and Joyce enjoyed travels with friends to Alaska, Mexico, and Europe. He also took the family to Denmark in 1975 to renew ties with his cousins.

Gerald Hansen is survived by Joyce, his wife of 63 years; sons Mark (Dana) of Chicago, David (Michele) of Wichita, and Ron (Traci) of Hutchinson; six granddaughters, two in law school, two in medical school, and two in college or soon to be; and nieces, nephews, and cousins. His father John passed away in 1972, his mother Sadie in 1994, and his sisters Elaine Metter and Jean Ross in 2015 and 1982, respectively.

Services will be private. Memorials are suggested to the Thomas County Community Foundation or the Colby United Methodist Church and may be sent in care of Baalmann Mortuary, PO Box 391, Colby, KS 67701. For information or condolences visit www.baalmannmortuary.com