Kaercher, John Zachariah

Lifelong Anchorage resident John Zachariah "Zak" Kaercher, 29, 
died June 2, 2010, at Providence Hospital in Anchorage due to 
a skateboarding accident.

A celebration of life will take place from 3 to 5 p.m. Friday at 
Simon and Seafort's. The family invites all guests to bring a 
favorite 4x6 photo of Zak. Please write a note or remembrance 
on the back and we will together create a photo collage. 

Zak was born May 18, 1981, in Polson, Mont., and moved to 
Anchorage at the age of 1. He attended Beautiful Savior 
preschool, Campbell Elementary, Mears Junior High, and 
graduated from Dimond High School in 1999. He attended the 
American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York City, 
graduating in 2001. He obtained a marketing and finance 
degree from Marymount Manhattan University in 2008. While 
living in New York he had the opportunity to work in film, 
television and commercials.

Zak moved back to Alaska in 2008 and developed and opened 
zAKs Boardroom, a very successful snowboard/skateboard 
shop in downtown Anchorage. He also owned Phaze One 
Indoor Skate Park, which was opened in January 2010. His free 
time was spent snow and skateboarding and he was an 
accomplished snowboard cross racer. He trained and traveled 
throughout the U.S. and South America during his college years. 
He was ranked 25th in the nation, and qualified for and 
attended nationals. He was always athletic and grew up playing 
hockey, football, baseball, and ski racing. 

He had a great love of music and played the sax for many 
years. He also enjoyed time at the family cabins at Big Lake and 
Homer, where he liked boating, wake boarding, water skiing, 
jet skiing, ocean boating, snow machining, four wheeling, 
gardening, and spending time with his family, friends, and dog 
Gus. 

Zak lived and worked in downtown Anchorage, and he took 
great pride in the downtown area. He was a member of the 
Downtown Partnership and was nominated for the Heart of 
Anchorage award for the past two years. 

He enjoyed the camaraderie of the downtown community and 
he strived to promote the vitality of this part of Anchorage. 

Zak was a very charismatic person and was able to connect to 
and befriend people very quickly. He was a free spirit and an 
independent thinker who pursued his dreams and lived the life 
he wanted to on his own terms. He had high expectations of 
himself and he was always successful at everything he 
attempted. People were very drawn to him and he was very 
loyal to everyone he loved and had the ability to make you feel 
that you were very important to him. Most of all he had a great 
sense of humor and time spent with Zak was just plain fun! We 
will miss his funny escapades, adventures, stories, energy, and 
irreverent sense of humor. He was deeply loved and admired 
by many and his loss has been profound.

Zak is survived by the love of his life, Caroline Menendez; 
parents, Dale and Patty Kaercher; sister, Faith Kaercher; uncles 
and aunts, Mike (Terra) Kaercher, Anthony (Sonya) Kaercher, all 
of Anchorage, Janet King of Fairbanks, Jerry (Timona) Kaercher 
of Minnesota, Jim Zadra of Montana, Barbara Zadra (Kent 
Bradford) of California; grandfather, Charlie Zadra of Montana; 
and cousins, Lauren, Max, Angela, Avery, Ben, Jesse, Jason, 
Nathan, Scott, Lenny and Tirzah. 

Zak was able to give the ultimate gift of life to many with his 
choice to be an organ donor and the family requests that any 
memorial donations in his name be directed to Life Alaska.org.

Published in adn.com from June 9 to June 10, 2010