Jack Brodersen Findlay, age 90, of Herbster, WI passed away peacefully Sunday, February 6, 2022, at St. Luke’s Hospice in Duluth, MN. He was born June 17, 1931, on a farm in Harlan, Iowa, the son of Forrest and Regina “Jennie” (Brodersen) Findlay.
Jack grew up on the family farm at the tail end of the Depression – during which, as he would later make sure to tell his grandchildren, he ate lard sandwiches. Harlan, Iowa is also where he graduated from high school, after which he pursued his passion for baseball. His father taught him the game by playing catch for hours after farm chores were finished. However, it was the true practice of throwing rocks at glass insulators on power lines while walking to and from school that trained his pitching arm. At 6’5”, Jack’s presence on the pitching mound was bolstered by his physics-defying knuckle ball and circle change-up. He pitched not only in the U.S. Air Force, but he also played semi-pro in the minor league farm systems for the Cubs and Cardinals, both before and after his military service. It has been said that Jack could pitch a blueberry through a battleship.
Jack served for four years in the USAF during the Korean War and was honorably discharged. After his military service, he attended Iowa State University where he received a bachelor’s degree in agricultural and mechanical engineering.
On October 11, 1972, he married Marie Jane Rondeau in Sioux Falls. Jack worked in sales throughout the agricultural machinery industry for over 30 years, supporting a region in the upper Midwest and Canada. He worked with Erickson and International Harvester, then joined Shank Power Products in 1973 and retired as their President in 1993. Jack was also licensed as a real estate agent and auctioneer.
He served on boards for both the South Shore School District and the Town of Clover, and he was a member of The American Legion, Herbster Business Association, Herbster Community Club, and the Wisconsin Auctioneers Association.
Jack was happiest spending time with his family during Christmas and Fourth of July gatherings at the house on Bark Point in Herbster, WI. He also enjoyed fishing, reading, playing cards, grilling, and watching all Wisconsin or Minnesota sports teams. Jack was a regular for breakfast at Pinecone Ole’s, and he spent his evenings enjoying the view of Lake Superior while sipping single-malt scotch or dry martinis and sometimes both.
Affectionately referring to him as “Big Jack,” Jack’s family will remember him for boat rides on Lake Superior, mowing walking paths through the woods of Bark Point, and reading hard copies of magazines from his faithful armchair. They remain grateful for the years they heard his familiar and hearty “‘Yello!” each time he answered the phone, as well as the customary “Dammit!” whenever Marie fed the Christmas pot roast to the dog under the dinner table.
Jack was steadfast, loving, hardworking and loyal: a salt-of-the-earth man who lived his 90 years well. He is loved, missed, and celebrated.
Jack is survived by his children, Jennifer (Sam) Heimlich, and John (Michelle) Findlay; stepsons Dierck (Melinda) Oosten and Dustin (Wendy) Oosten; daughters-in-law Catherine (Joel) Findlay and Margaret (Scott) Findlay; 15 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
Jack was preceded in death by his parents; his sister, Betty Findlay (1991); his first wife, Donna Jean Petersen (Findlay, Mount) (1998), his second wife, Marie (2011); and sons Joel Findlay (2004) and Scott Findlay (2021).
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History of Auctioneering
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The most valuable diary in the world is a journal kept by Dr. Alexander Macklin, a surgeon on Sir Ernest Shackleton’s legendary Endurance adventure of 1914-1917, which was sold at Christie’s, London, UK on 25 September 2001 for £104,950 ($153,573).
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The highest price ever paid for a single piece of furniture is £19.045,250 ($36,662,106) at Christie’s, London, UK on 9 December 2004 for the 18th-century Italian Badminton cabinet purchased by Dr. Johan Kraeftner, Director of the Liechtenstein Museum, Vienna, Italy on behalf of Prinz Hans Adam II of Liechtenstein, to be exhibited in the museum.
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The most expensive musical instrument sold at auction is the ‘Lady Blunt’ Stradivarius violin and was sold at £9,808,000 ($15,875,800) by Tarisio Auctions (USA) in London, UK, on 20 June 2011. The auction was organised online on behalf of the Nippon Music Foundation and the proceeds went to the Northeastern Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fund.
The authenticity of the violin was certified by the firm W.E. Hill & Sons.
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The most expensive baseball jersey sold at auction was sold for $4,415,658 (£2,789,860), by SCP Auctions (USA) of Laguna Niguel, California, USA, on 20 May 2012.
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A near-complete skeleton of a dodo (Raphus cucullatus) sold for £346,300 ($404,192) with buyers’ premium at Summers Place Auctions in Billingshurst, West Sussex, UK, on 22 November 2016. It was bought by a private collector, who made the winning bid by telephone. Errol Fuller, Natural History curator at Summers Place, said that the piece was an “amazingly rare”, being the first “relatively complete” skeleton to have come up for auction since the 1920s.
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Most expensive hockey jersey sold at auction was sold for $1,275,707.91 (£860,975.26), by Classic Auctions Inc. (Canada) of Delson, Quebec, Canada, on 22 June 2010.
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The most expensive sweater or cardigan sold at auction is a grey mohair five-button cardigan once worn by Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain. On 26 October 2019, the cardigan sold for $334,000 (including buyer’s premium) at a Julien’s Auctions event at the Hard Rock Cafe in New York, USA.
This stained, saggy old cardigan became an unlikely fashion icon after Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain wore it during the taping of his band’s acoustic special MTV Unplugged in November 1993.
The cardigan was made by the Manhattan Shirt Company – a mass-market apparel retailer and manufacturer – probably in the early 1960s. The fabric is a blend of acrylic, mohair and Lycra, and its original retail price was probably somewhere around $15 (equivalent to around $130 in 2019). Kurt Cobain likely bought it from a thrift store in Seattle, which was where the famously fashion-averse grunge star did most of his shopping.
During the last year or so of Cobain’s life, he reportedly wore this cardigan frequently, both in public and while at home. As a result, it is worn and damaged, with a missing button, cigarette burns and a mysterious crunchy brown stain around the right front pocket.
After Cobain’s death in 1994, his wife gave it to their daughter Frances’s nanny, Jackie Farry. Farry had intended to give it to Frances when she got older, but in 2014 she was forced to sell it to pay medical bills. When it first went up for auction, it fetched a price of $137,500 – more than double the expected value.
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The most expensive durian fruit sold at auction was 1.5 million Thai baht ($47,784; £37,635), and was achieved by Maliwan Han Chai Thai, Pa Toi Lung Mu farm and the King Of Durian festival (All Thailand) in Nonthaburi, Thailand on 7 June 2019.
The rare kanyao durian was handpicked just a day before it was sold from a nearby farm where the minimum price of the fruit is 20,000 baht.
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The most expensive pork carcass sold at auction is JPY 1,394,690 ($12,756, £9,964, €10,809) which was produced by Hitachi Farm Co., Ltd. (Japan) and sold at Tokyo Meat Market in Minato, Tokyo, Japan, on 25 August 2017.
The pork breed is Bunabuta (mixed breed of Landrace, Middle White, and Duroc) which is known for soft meat with white fat, resulting in sweet and pure taste. Hitachi Farm is located in Kuji, Ibaraki, Japan.
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