Jared Hills Obituary, Death Cause – Camp was grieved to learn of the demise of Jared Hills, who resided in Cedar Rapids and was 86 years old. Jared started working at Devine Engineering as soon as he graduated college. He bought the company in 1973 and has been there ever since, accumulating more than 63 years of experience (one may learn more about Divine Engineering by going to the Cedar Rapids History Center, which has stunning exhibits of the company’s work). Jared was very committed to the success of the company and the people that worked there. After the passing of Judy A. Taylor, an employee of Divine Engineering, the company contributed half of the funds necessary to construct a Camp Courageous Respite/Volunteer Home in Judy’s honor.

Judy loves giraffes, so naturally she chose to have two of them support the stone sign. Along with attending a large number of other activities, Jared and Carol, his wife of over 64 years, were frequent attendees of breakfasts and open houses held by Camp Courageous. I have a very clear recollection of Jared coming up to me over breakfast and remarking that Camp’s Burma Bridge was quite the exciting trip.

This portion of the high adventure course was concealed in the camp’s woods owing to the fact that it posed a risk if it was not belayed into the safety rope system. I inquired as to whether or not he had seen a photo of it, and his response was, “Oh no, I did it!” It is around 30 feet in the air above a ravine, and Jared is the only person who, as far as I am aware, has ever participated in that sport without using safety straps and ropes. In spite of the fact that Jared had a very hectic lifestyle, he never failed to take advantage of the chance to visit the camp during the winter break and play music with the New Horizons Band for the students there.

They were in awe of Jared and his musical abilities, and it made that particular time of year even more memorable for Jared to be able to offer so much happiness to the campers via his musical performances. We will miss seeing and chatting with Jared at the plethora of events that take place in Eastern Iowa…Thousands of people counted him as a close friend. Our condolences go out to Carol, her son Paul, daughter Kari, and the rest of Carol’s family and friends…

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