Born John Thomas Plunkert, Jr. to John Thomas Plunkert, Sr. and Marie Plunkert on July 17, 1941 in St. Louis, Missouri, he was always simply known as "Jack." Later, he also cherished being called "Gramps" by the nine grandchildren he so dearly loved. Metastatic lung cancer ended his well-lived life on June 6, 2022. A natural athlete, Jack participated in a number of different sports at different levels during his lifetime. He was a competitive swimmer and boxer in his youth. His first love was baseball, though, and he was offered a minor league contract by the Philadelphia Phillies upon graduation from high school, but his parents wanted him to attend college instead. He ended up playing football for St. Joseph's Catholic College in Indiana for a year before transferring to North Texas State where he played basketball for the Mean Green and graduated with an accounting degree. He worked in the accounting field for only a year or two before discovering that his real talent was in marketing. He served as a sales rep for IBM for a number of years, earning various performance awards, including the Gateway Star award in 1972 and the Hundred Percent Club award in 1973. From IBM, he moved on to work for other high-tech companies prior to starting his own business in Littleton, Colorado, in which he initially repped corporate promotional items before focusing exclusively on the design and distribution of seasonal beer steins for major U.S. breweries and microbreweries, including Coors, Stroh's, Lone Star, Miller, Olympia, and Rock Bottom, among others. Upon retiring at the end of 2007, he and his wife, Marianne, sold their home in Colorado, bought a 40-foot sailboat in New Jersey, and became liveaboards, sailing down the eastern seaboard of the U.S. before crossing into the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, the Dominican Republic, and the eastern Caribbean islands. When they were ready to be "dirt dwellers" again, they moved back to Colorado briefly and researched alternative retirement locations. The Asheville area looked appealing, and serendipity landed them in Brevard, where they quickly fell in love with the town and its people. He worked at Ingles for a short time and soon found his way back onto a court, playing pickleball this time. He and his pickleball partner participated in the Senior Games state finals a couple of years, and he was instrumental in getting the county commissioners to approve the construction of the four outdoor pickleball courts we now enjoy. He and Marianne also became North Carolina Senior Games Ambassadors, and he served as president of the local Senior Games Board in 2019-2020. In 2019, he received the Jimmy Schanck Award for his "hard work and dedication to the Land of Waterfalls Senior Games." He was a fiercely devoted husband, father, and grandfather, and a loyal friend. He was always ready to lend a helping hand and had a quick wit that even the pain of cancer couldn't suppress, making jokes as he lay in his hospital bed. He will also be remembered for his big smile and his love of the 3 B's: beer, barbecue, and baseball (Colorado Rockies baseball, especially). He leaves behind his wife of over 25 years, Marianne; two sons and their spouses: John Thomas "Jay" Plunkert III (Janet) of Colorado and James Gregory Plunkert (Anne Marie) of Texas; two daughters: Penny Anne Plunkert of California and Francine Dawn Plunkert of Missouri; two stepsons and their spouses: Jacob Russell Hite (Yui) of Thailand and Marshall Ryan Hite (Erin) of Colorado; eight grandsons and one granddaughter. He is also survived by two brothers and one sister and their spouses. A viewing/visitation is scheduled for Monday, June 13th from 10:30 A.M. to 11:00 A.M. at the Moody-Connolly funeral home, followed by a funeral program in his honor at 11:00. Interment will take place directly afterwards at the Blue Ridge Gardens of Memories in Pisgah Forest. Online condolences may be left at www.moodyconnollyfuneralhome.com Moody-Connolly Funeral Home and Crematory is in charge of the arrangements