Jack Ebner Schafer

Jack Schafer passed away peacefully surrounded by his family and loved ones in his Fair Oaks home that he and his wife Rebecca designed and lovingly remodeled over the past 37 years. He courageously and gracefully fought prostate cancer for many years. He was preceded in death by his parents Hilda and Ebner Schafer and brother Tim. He is survived by his wife of 40 years, Rebecca Rhinelander, his sons Joel (Micaela) and Jason, his granddaughter, Ona, and nieces and nephew. Jack was born in Lodi and raised in Rio Vista, CA where his love of the outdoors, wildlife, and the arts began. In his early years, he loved baseball, Boy Scouts, and hunting and fishing with his father. Jack graduated from Rio Vista High School and received both his undergraduate and Masters-of-Fine-Arts degree from Sacramento State University. After working in landscape design and as a graphic artist and designer for Channel 10, he joined the art department at Del Campo High School in 1970. He was the department chairman for many years. During his 41-year teaching career, Jack mentored and impacted the lives of many students through ceramics, art, photography, drafting, and woodworking. His kindness, generosity, and wisdom spanned far beyond academics and shaped the lives and careers of many young people. He had a graphic design business; creating logos and corporate identities for a wide variety of organizations and businesses. A life-long owner of duck property in the San Joaquin Delta, Jack served as president of the Suisun Reclamation District. He used his talents and passion to preserve the delta as a wildlife refuge. Jack was always pursuing new interests and teaching himself new crafts including building and construction, gardening, furniture building, genealogy, and computer graphics/photoshop while continuing to master ceramics. He was generous in his time and talents to help family and friends with many projects. He loved to make and give away his pottery. He and Rebecca loved to travel and enjoyed their trips to Europe and Hawaii. His trip to Japan specifically impacted his life and artwork. Rebecca; the love of his life and best friend was his inspiration. Together, they loved to cook, BBQ, entertain, and enjoy the company of family and friends. Jack loved his Siamese cats and Golden Retrievers; spending time with and photographing them. He and Rebecca spent many years training the dogs for AKC competition. Jack was a wonderful husband, father, son, grandfather, brother, brother-in-law, uncle, cousin, and life-long friend. Jack will be greatly missed and lovingly remembered by many.