Hankins Tales: Remembering Daniel Janosko

(Originally posted to social media on October 6, 2020)

I feel compelled to note another passing. Sometimes it seems like that is all I do lately. So many old and dear friends have already gone on down that long and dusty camp road. My good friend Jeff Janosko dropped us a note saying that his father had died in Roanoke. He was 96 years old. While it is a great loss it is hard to be upset about the passing of someone that age. What a remarkable life he led. He has seen things that most of us can only imagine.

I knew Jeffs father very well from the years that Jeff served on my nature staff and from High Knoll. He was a great guy to just sit down and visit with. He loved his kids and he supported them at all times. He would occasionally give me rides back to Roanoke from Camp Powhatan and he could hold his own in any conversation.

The loss of a father or a mother is a hard situation to deal with no matter the circumstance. Memories come flooding back and you reach out to surviving family to plan a funeral in the age of COVID. They want the service to be small and contained to family. There is no sense putting others in danger.

Jeff and Kathy are now living in Gods Country, Colorado near Boulder. He was the best man in my first marriage. There is little that I can say to assuage a loss as profound as this but it is enough to let him know that we are thinking of him and his family.

This has been a difficult year in so many ways. Adding the loss of a parent is one more burden to bear.

With permission of the author, these stories by noted scouter and storyteller John Hankins are featured here at Natahwop.Org. He shares these as part of the history and lore of Camp Powhatan, Camp Ottari, and the High Knoll Trail, where he spent many years of his youth. John has an incomperable first-hand knowledge of this scout reservation, as he blazed most of the original trails for High Knoll, and has hiked the rest of them several times over.

John Hankins grew up in Troop 50 (Woodlawn United Methodist Church) in Roanoke, VA. He attended Camp Powhatan as a young scout, then worked at Philmont Ranch as a ranger. He returned to the reservation to serve on camp staff from 1968 to 1978. He was a legendary naturalist who could interpret the outdoors unlike any other. As a teacher, John often relied on the element of excitement to get his point across. His weekly lectures at the nature lodge, for example, introduced scouts to either a live rattlesnake or copperhead – usually dangling on a stick within a few feet of the front row.

John and several others first envisioned the now-legendary High Knoll trail system. They took it to council leadership for prospective funding, where the idea gained several key advocates (but no funding). John recalls how – in those days – they couldn’t pay the staff with money, so they gave them patches. The High Knoll Trail would go on to become one of the best outdoor programs in the country.

John applied in 1979 for the open job of Camp Ranger, but the council said he needed more experience in that post. With his rejection letter in hand, he was immediately hired by Camp Chickohominy, and then by Camp Brady Saunders where he served for 33 years as Camp Ranger. John moved with his wife, Cheri, to West Virginia where they enjoyed the spoils of retirement: grandchildren, travel, and the great outdoors. As of 2024, they are living on the outskirts of Richmond where they can be closer to family.

(“Hankins Tales” are shared here by permission of the author. Each story is copyrighted by John Hankins, and may not be reproduced in any form without his express written permission.)

The Natahwop

Hankins Tales: Remembering Daniel Janosko

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