David G. Jackson
David G. Jackson, born July 31, 1933, passed away on July 21,
2018 in Albuquerque, NM with his daughter, Melissa at his side.
The veteran hiker, backpacker and outdoorsman is on the long trail where the weather is good, the water is cool and clear, the fish are biting, the elk are moving and the bighorn sheep are waiting at the pass. The meadows are covered with wildflowers. In the distance are mountains and canyons to be hiked. And again, Dave Jackson says "Thank you God for New Mexico."
The son of the late New Mexico State Policeman David E. Jackson and Mili Stakich Jackson, Dave was born in Santa Fe, NM and has lived in 20 communities in New Mexico, two of which are now ghost towns. He grew up in Gallup where he graduated from high school. He attended the University of New Mexico where he received a BA in Journalism and MS in Speech. He was a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon Fraternity. He was a veteran of the US Army during the Korean War period, having served in Germany in the field artillery (280mm cannons).
Following his Army service, he married the late Peggy Hooper of Clovis in 1957. He has three daughters, Laurel Jackson and husband, Chris Rogers, Kim Jackson and daughter, Alazan Flores and Melissa Stock and husband, Dan and children, Hailey and Carson.
In his professional career, Dave started as a newspaper reporter for the Albuquerque Journal. In 1958 he became an information and education officer for the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish. He edited the New Mexico Wildlife Magazine, presented the New Mexico Outdoors television program and designed and built several exhibits including the New Mexico State Fair and the 1964 New York World’s Fair New Mexico exhibit.
As assistant to the president at New Mexico Tech from 1964 to 1969, he helped to raise the funds needed to purchase Tech’s first large computer and modernized the college’s publications. He completed his career as an information officer for the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, and successor agencies for the Energy Research and Development Administration and the Department of Energy. His work as a federal employee was in the nuclear weapons program that took him all over the world. He was chief spokesman for the nuclear weapons testing program and for the nuclear weapons production program. He was a member of several emergency response teams that dealt with accidents involving the release of radioactive materials. These included Three-Mile Island and Operation Morning Light where the AEC helped to locate radioactive parts from a Soviet satellite that was powered by a nuclear reactor which came to earth over northern Canada in January 1977.
Following his retirement in 1994, he worked as a consultant to Sandia National Laboratories; a writer of travel, hiking and chile articles and in the Chautauqua program making presentations concerning Kit Carson and Clyde Tingley. He was a life long student of New Mexico history and hiked in all the national forests and the wilderness areas in New Mexico. He was a member and trip leader in the New Mexico Mountain Club, leading hikes all over New Mexico and surrounding states and as far away as Canada and Alaska.
A Life Celebration will be held at a later date to be announced.
Burial will take place at the Santa Fe National Cemetery.
The family wishes to thank Dave’s best friends, John Roberts, Jim Allen and Don Tailby for being trailmates to the very end. We would also like to express our gratitude to John, Terry and Annette and his many friends at Brookdale Valencia as well as Dr. Allen Adolphe and Sherry, Teresa and Heidi at Home Instead, Sandia View Assisted Living and Hospice of New Mexico. A special thank you to Lap Dog Rescue of New Mexico for their kind assistance with his beloved companion, Bucky.
In lieu of flowers donations can be made to the Salvation Army in David’s name.