Jay Shinkle knew the names of earthly things. The grasses in a well-managed pasture. The insects troubling an alfalfa crop. The particular patience required to teach a child to cast a line without spooking the fish. He spent 70 years paying that kind of attention, and the world around him — the land, the animals, the people — was better for it.

Jackson "Jay" Johnson Shinkle, Jr. passed away peacefully on Tuesday, May 5, 2026, at his home near Ironton, Missouri. He was a man who knew where he belonged and lived there fully — with wide curiosity, enduring purpose, and quiet grace.

For the last two decades, Jay showed up every week to volunteer for Meals on Wheels at the Signer Senior Center in Arcadia Valley. It was precisely the kind of service he preferred: unglamorous, consistent, and genuinely useful. His children came along on the deliveries and ate lunch with him at Baylee Jo's Barbecue — memories they will carry the rest of their lives.

Jay was born October 5, 1955, in Evanston, Illinois, and was raised by Jackson Johnson Shinkle Sr. and Judith Cutler Shinkle. He grew up in an old farmhouse with a barn and chicken coop on Geyer Road in Frontenac, Missouri — a sanctuary in the suburbs and social center for Jay and his closest friends, who gathered for seafood on the screened porch they called the Lobster Club. From an early age, Jay was drawn to the outdoors, to wildlife, and to the kind of steady, unhurried observation of the natural world. He attended St. Louis Country Day School — an enthusiastic soccer player, more at ease on an open field than in any room — before earning a dual degree in Agriculture and Philosophy at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.

After college, Jay headed west to the UM Ranch in Buffalo, Wyoming, where he worked alongside cattle, sharpening the practical skills that would define his career. He returned to Missouri to serve as head herdsman for the Simmental beef production and breeding program at Trail Tree Farm in Irondale — work that deepened his expertise and his bond with the land. He then returned to the University of Missouri in Columbia to complete a Master of Science in Animal Science, before joining the University of Missouri Extension Service. There he worked with farmers across the region, hosting Field Day workshops and directing programs in livestock, forage, and entomology at MU's regional farms. His knowledge was practical and hard-won, offered with the quiet assurance of a man who never condescended.

As a boy, Jay spent formative summers at Camp Kooch-i-ching, paddling the Boundary Waters along the Minnesota and Canadian border — weeks of open water, wilderness, and self-reliance that shaped him in ways that lasted a lifetime.

It was during his travels that Jay met the person who would become the center of his world. He and Sarah "Sally" Brookings Wallace found each other while visiting friends on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, and theirs became a deep, lifelong love affair. Sally remembers Jay as someone who was true to himself — shy, and one who loved solitude as time to reflect. Yet he was also a popular guest at dinner parties, always bringing something different and unexpected to the conversation. They married in 1989 and put down roots at Dogtrot Farm near Farmington, their rural homestead outside Ironton, set among the St. Francois Mountains in the Mark Twain National Forest — the Gateway to the Ozarks. There Jay managed a commercial crossbred beef cattle operation with a focus on small farm sustainability. He loved the clean rivers and watersheds of Missouri, its agricultural traditions, and the particular beauty of the Ozark landscape he called home. Together, Jay and Sally treasured float trips with lifelong friends on the rivers of Missouri, road trips, and the pleasure of always finding their way home.

Jay retired in 2010 but never really stopped. He remained engaged in wildlife and natural resource conservation, tended his land, baked bread, cooked with SPAM with absolute sincerity, and rewatched Monty Python with genuine delight. He was devoted to 1970s rock 'n roll. He read voraciously and without snobbery — Ghost in the Shell, the Japanese graphic novel exploring consciousness and what it means to be human, alongside histories of the French Colonial era. He cared for a lifetime's worth of cats, guinea pigs, and many, many dogs. He loved fishing and gardening, and they came naturally to him. Each season he set himself the challenge of growing a new vegetable crop. A man most at home in solitude, Jay was nonetheless known to bring the house down with a well-timed witticism or an occasional free-form dance at parties — proof that still waters run surprising.

Jay is survived by his beloved wife Sally of 38 years; his son Sam Shinkle and daughter-in-law Maggie; his daughter Jules Shinkle; his grandchildren Calvin and Dean Shinkle; his sister Judy S. Marston and brother-in-law Hunter; his brother Peter Shinkle and sister-in-law Meg Shinkle; the extended Wallace family; and many beloved nephews, nieces, and cousins.

A private service will be held for family. Donations in Jay's memory may be made to The Nature Conservancy Missouri, whose work in protecting the land he loved carries his spirit forward.

The world he leaves behind is smaller for his absence, and larger for everything he noticed in it.