Jacobo Reynaldo "Jake" Garcia, an Army veteran and resourceful handyman who rode the New Mexico range as a young man, passed away on Nov. 12 at the Heritage Hall nursing home in Front Royal, Va., after a long illness He was 83.

Garcia was born on July 3, 1940, in Las Vegas, New Mexico, and grew up on the family's ranch in Belen, New Mexico, where he learned to cowboy on a horse named "Brute."

He was raised with brothers Alfonso and Michael, and five sisters – Rita, Clara, Maria, Josie and Barbara – and enlisted in the Army in 1959. He served a total of six years on active duty and in the reserves, both stateside and overseas

Jake was honorably discharged with the rank of Specialist 4th Class after a career in uniform that included service with the "All American" 82nd Arborne Division and the 39th Infantry Regiment. He returned to Belen where he worked in construction before moving to northern Virginia near his brother, Alfonso, in Sterling, Va.

Jake worked a variety of jobs that took advantage of his wide range of skills – from fixing a car to paving a driveway – before getting permanent employment as a maintenance worker with Computer Sciences Corp. It was at the firm that he met his loving partner, Patricia Fischetti, and began a lasting relationship that grew out of their camping and fishing trips.

After his retirement from Computer Sciences Corp., the couple moved to 15 acres of land at the Crossings in Hampshire County, W.Va. – reachable only by a winding dirt road – where they had horses  and cattle, and also room for a large garden.

Their home well off a main road became the setting for family gatherings with Pat's two sons and two daughters, and numerous grandchildren and great- grand children who were delighted to be introduced by Jake to tractor rides and the ways of deer that proliferated in the hills of The Crossings.

Since 2014, Pat and Jake resided at the Lansdowne Woods senior living facility in Leesburg, Va.

Jake is survived by his five sisters, two sons, John Jacob Garcia and Jason Garcia, and a daughter, Kristen.  Interment will take place on Dec. 11 at the Santa Fe National Cemetery, administered by the Department of Veterans Affairs, in Sante Fe County, New Mexico.