Young Jack Sorvik made it two miles one Wyoming summer morning before his leg gave out. Henry "Shorty" Jackson looked at him, leaned over, and said, "Jump on."

They were two men, one young, eager but doubtful, the other, encouraging and supportive.

Sorvik was a 12-year-old boy who wanted to earn his second-class merit badge, but polio left his left leg partially paralyzed and made the required 14-mile hike practically impossible. Jackson, his Scoutmaster, 22 years old and just back from war, was there.

Each fence the pair encountered, Jackson climbed over and Sorvik climbed under. Jackson would then walk a couple hundred yards before turning around and encouraging Sorvik to walk more alone.

"By golly, he's going to make me walk some of this," Sorvik remembered thinking.

Sorvik spent seven of the 14 miles on Jackson's back, and won't ever forget the man who literally carried him when he couldn't walk.

"He was the one who saw that I could make the 14 miles whether I walked it all or not," Sorvik said, recalling that day, just a snapshot in the life of Henry "Shorty" Jackson of Sheridan, who died on March 5 at age 84.

More than 50 years after that hike, Jackson was still a Scoutmaster, teaching, encouraging and helping hundreds of boys in Sheridan earn their badges and learn survival skills.

He and his wife of 50 years, Irene, didn't have any children of their own, but Jackson, the oldest of five, had 15 nieces and nephews, all of whom he treated as his own.

When Jackson's brother-in-law died leaving his sister Carol Dau with three young children, Jackson assumed the role as caretaker.

"Shorty came out and got everything together and made sure everything was taken care of," said Mark Seay, Dau's son and one of Jackson's Scouts. "He didn't have kids of his own but took us in to be his kids."

Dau later remarried a man Seay considers his dad, but Jackson never left the role of surrogate father when needed. Seay and his brother Mike Seay remember realizing after Jackson died that their uncle had always been there, teaching and mentoring.

Jackson, while standing only 5-foot-4, was "tough as nails," Mark said. He was an excellent story teller, who also "very up-front."

"He told you the way it was but did it in a way that was a mentor teaching method," Mark said. "He didn't get upset or mad."

When Jackson came back after four years serving in the Navy, he entered the electrical business, first working for local electricians in Sheridan and later starting and owning Jackson Electric.

Mark Seay's talents were also in electrical work, and instead of encouraging Mark Seay to follow in his footsteps and work in Sheridan, he pushed his nephew to do what would make him happy, even if it meant working in a state far away.

As a kid, Dau said her big brother was constantly teaching her other brothers and sisters interesting skills.

"He was always doing something," Dau said. "He taught us how to build fires and tie knots, Boy Scouting things."

Jackson was a man Mike Seay said everyone in Sheridan could trust.

"He probably has keys to half the businesses in town," Mike Seay said. Business owners gave Jackson their keys, and he would get the work done.

It's funny, Mike Seay said. You don't realize how much you depend on someone, until they're gone.

Contact city reporter Christine Robinson at (307) 266-0639 or christine.robinson@trib.com