Jacob Daniel Hainey

Jake was born on October 30, 1983, in Dansville, New York. He was a boy scout in Cub Scout Troop 82 and attained the rank of Eagle Scout in 1999. Jake graduated from Mt. Morris High School, Class of 2002. He then went on to attend Finger Lakes Community College and continued his education in Wildlife and Forestry at SUNY Cobleskill. Jake's love of the mountains and outdoors brought him to the Sierra Nevada mountains in Tahoe. He spent a year with Americorps at the Safe Haven rescue zoo and built a bear cub enclosure for orphaned cubs. He had many employment opportunities, but he found his passion when he began working for CALFIRE as a fire lookout at Martis Peak. He rose to the rank of Fire Apparatus Engineer assigned to the Truckee station in 2023. Jake began his loving journey into fatherhood with his daughter in 2009. He met his wife in 2011 and they married in 2017. Settling in Reno, Nevada in 2016, where they welcomed the birth of their second daughter in 2019. Jake had many loving friends, family and coworkers who enjoyed his adventurous stories, sense of humor and caring nature. He had a peaceful spirit, finding solace in music, laughter and in his own words, "Vibing out on the wind."

On September 2, 2024 Jake passed away after a sudden ATV accident. He was exploring, photographing and hunting in the Northern Nevada mountains. He had just finished a 16 day assignment working on the California wildfires. Jake wrote a song with the line “ You can call it your own”. His close friend, brother, recorded it in September of 2024. This memorial bench placed among the pines in Mt Morris and the Aspen in Truckee are both places where his love soared. It honors the life of love he lived with his wife, his daughters, sisters, nephews, parents and friends. There are many ways to remember Jake; listen to the song he wrote, listen to the song he loved to sing and play "Wagon Wheel, take a good long hike, rescue a shelter dog, giggle at silly things, rest on this bench. Love one another.