Henry James Wallock

Jim attended Elko High School, graduating in 1957. He played sports, excelling in baseball and football. The football team played for the Nevada State Championships all three years he played and was a member of the 1957 Nevada All State Football team as a fullback his senior season. Following graduation he attended the University of Nevada-Reno for one year before returning to Elko. His first job after college was as a lineman for the Power Company and then moved to Slim Olson’s service station on the west end of Elko. He serviced cars and drove the fuel truck to Mountain City. After a year he went to work at the Commercial Hotel as a slot machine mechanic. He eventually moved to maintenance and was in charge of the whole facility and on call 24/7. In 1972 he went to work with Frank Aguirre who with Jim Gregory had opened a local hardware store, Builder’s Mart. He worked at Builder’s Mart for 26 years. He worked as assistant manager and manager before leaving in 1998 to start “Jim’s Lawncare Service”. He worked and managed his own business until retiring completely in 2008.

He married his wife, Gay Lavee Gilligan on July 17, 1961 in Elko. Their marriage was solemnized in the Salt Lake LDS Temple on March 1, 1965. They raised four children, Jeff (Madison), Vicki (Eric), Roger (Raelyn) and Steven (Michelle). Like Jim, the children all graduated from Elko High School.

Jim was active in the community, coaching Little League Baseball teams when his sons played. His teams won several league titles and he coached the local Little League All-star team (Steve was 12 and a member of the team) to the state championship game in 1984. He was a mainstay in the local Fast Pitch Softball League, playing softball for 20+ years.

He was active in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He worked in various capacities throughout his time in Elko. He loved the people he worked with and the people who looked to him for guidance in his capacities as a leader and a missionary for the LDS Church. He and Gay were instrumental in organizing and developing the initial Addiction-Recovery Program in the Elko area. This program was sponsored by the LDS Church but was intended to be a non-denominational assistance program for people trying to tame and overcome addictions in any area. It required strict confidentiality and he and his bride worked together in this capacity until health issues forced him to slow his roll during his final years in Elko. He was a natural in this role. People found him very easy to talk to as he preferred to listen and let people talk their way to solutions to their problems. He could keep confidences, essential in this service. He did not enjoy the role of public speaker, yet the service he was often engaged in required that he speak to church congregations. Though he did not ever really enjoy the actual experience of speaking at the pulpit, he became accomplished at it and actually came to enjoy preparing for these “talks” that were required in his various callings.

He was a natural at building things. His family believed he could build anything. He loved tools. He had duplicate tools in his garage for many years, until he moved to Utah. He knew every one of them and if you borrowed one, he knew it, though we never knew how because there were so many. He loved building model cars & airplanes. He had a train set that occupied an entire room in his house in his early married years. In his final years, he was a master Lego model builder. His shop in his garage in Utah attests to this talent. He also built several Pinewood Derby cars that were champions when his sons were in Cub Scouts.

This tribute could go on for pages, but one other thing he loved was brevity and especially when it came to talking about him. Though his final years presented several health challenges, he loved life and all the people he encountered along the way. He will be missed by many, many people, too numerous to count. But no one will miss him more than his family. He was grandpa to 15 living grandchildren, 9 great-grandchildren, and numerous nieces and nephews who love him as their own; words can’t describe the void he leaves in his passing.

He is survived by his wife of 61 years, Gay, his sister JoAnne Fornaciari, all his children and their spouses, and the grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and nieces and nephews just mentioned. He was preceded in death by his parents, an infant grandson, 4 brothers’-in-law, and a sister-in- law.