DAYTONA BEACH NEWS-JOURNAL
Daytona Beach, Florida

Albert Edward "Pop" Jenkins Jr., 83, a tool and die maker for Chrysler Corporation, died Nov. 16, 2006, at Florida Memorial Hospital in Ormond Beach from complications of open heart surgery. 

He was a 22-year resident of Ormond-by-the-Sea, which served as his home in retirement. Mr. Jenkins was born in Ithaca, N.Y., on September 5, 1923. He married Catherine Dolan on Oct. 30, 1942, in Philadelphia.

Mr. Jenkins was drafted into the First Infantry Division of the U.S. Army in 1943, in the middle of World War II. Mr. Jenkins was later one of 10 out of 500 men from his division to be admitted to Company A of the elite 2nd Ranger Battalion, whose members famously scaled the cliffs at Pont du Hoc on D-Day. After sustaining an injury during training exercises with the Rangers, Mr. Jenkins was transferred to Battery A of the 115th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Gun Battalion, where he landed at Normandy, France, on June 13, 1944, the same day as the birth of his first child. Battery A was eventually awarded five Battle Stars for its involvement in each of the major battles of the European campaign: the Normandy invasion, the Battle of Northern France, the Rhineland, the Battle of the Bulge and Central Europe. 

After the war, Mr. Jenkins first worked as a trolley driver for the Philadelphia Transportation Company. He later apprenticed to become a tool and die maker at Philadelphia's Baldwin Locomotive Works. Upon completion of his apprenticeship, he served as a tool and die maker for a variety of firms, including Westinghouse and Chrysler Corporation, for whom he served 29 years prior to his retirement in 1984.

He was an expert craftsman who designed his Ormond-by-the-Sea retirement home and also made furniture, doll houses and a wide assortment of toys in his home woodshop many of which are proudly displayed in the homes of family and friends. Mr. Jenkins was known by his family, friends and passing acquaintances alike, for his unconditional warmth, generosity and sense of humor. He regularly delivered his homemade cookies, pies and baked goods to doctors' offices and other business establishments with whom he interacted and was known by several of them as "the Cookie Man." Family and friends will forever recall his home-cooked meals, particularly on holidays, his humorous anecdotes and joke telling and his overall hospitality, which made it impossible to doubt his love for them.

Surviving are his wife of 64 years, Catherine V. Jenkins, Ormond-by-the-Sea; two children, Catherine Dingle, Newark, Del., and Albert E. Jenkins III, Daytona Beach; six grandchildren; and 12 great-grandchildren.

 Mr. Jenkins' experience of living through the "Great Depression," serving his country during the "Great War," and being a part of the building of what has been called the "Great American Century," certainly entitles him to be termed as an active part of the "Greatest Generation." His family's love for him will ensure his spirit will live on.

Services celebrating the life of Mr. Jenkins will be held on Friday, Nov. 24, at 11 a.m. in the chapel of Craig-Flagler Palms Funeral Home, 511 Old Kings Road S. Flagler Beach, with the Rev. Harry Gilman, chaplain, U.S. Army Retired, officiating. The family will receive friends on Friday from 10 a.m. until the time of services at the funeral home. Entombment with military honors will be follow in Flagler Palms Memorial Gardens. 

The family suggests contributions in memory of Mr. Jenkins to Florida Hospital Memorial Hospice Care, 777 W. Granada Blvd. Ormond Beach FL 32174.

Arrangements are in the care and trust of Craig-Flagler Palms Funeral Home.