Michael Stanley Jernigan

November 24, 1943 – April 20, 2026

Michael Stanley Jernigan knew things. He knew the difference between a good bearing and a bad one, the feel of a road under a well-tuned engine, and — most importantly — exactly which truck had a console wide enough for a dog to perch on and bark at cows.

Mike was born in Elma, Washington on November 24, 1943, to Stanley Eugene and Mary Gertrude Wheelock Jernigan, and grew up in the kind of small-town Pacific Northwest that builds people with strong backs and strong opinions. He was the second of five children — Sharon, Larry, Brian, and Patrick — which means he had just enough seniority to know better, and just enough siblings to never get away with anything.

Mike and Susan Tjomsland married in 1968 and had sons Jeffrey Michael and Scott Andrew. The marriage might not have lasted, but he loved his sons. They always made him smile.

His working life told the story of a man who paid attention. From the door plant in McCleary to Gerrish Bearing in Tacoma — where he didn't make much money, he'll have you know, but learned a tremendous amount about bearings — Mike was the kind of man who absorbed everything around him and filed it away for later. He spent 16 years with Bearings Inc., working out of Tacoma, Aberdeen, and Centralia, before landing at Associated Petroleum Products in Tacoma, where he stayed until retirement. In other words: the man knew industry, he knew the Pacific Northwest, and he absolutely knew bearings and the lubricants that made them run smoothly.

But the real story of Mike's life isn't found on a resume. It's found somewhere around 1984, when his cousin made an introduction that changed everything. Roberta "Bobbi" Nicholls Pierce walked into Mike's life, brought two sons (Justin and Jason), a dog named Gretel, and — as Mike himself would have said — the rest is history. Forty-one years of marriage. Forty-one years of camping, clam digging, car shows and events both near and far, wrenching on cars, square dancing, seventeen years volunteering at The LeMay Family Collection at Marymount(his happy place), road trips in the RV, kids growing up, dogs cycling through with the loyalty only dogs can manage, and one cat who wandered in off the street, decided this was home, and spent 15 years proving it — mostly by sleeping on Mike's lap. He wasn't particularly a cat person, but the cat didn't ask.

Now. About the cars.

Mike Jernigan had what can only be described as a profound and lifelong relationship with automobiles. At last count — and this count was conducted with Mike, Bobbi, and his son Jeff in one of those irreplaceable late conversations — he had owned no fewer than 36 vehicles. Each one had a story. They got about ten of them documented before Mike got too tired to continue, which means the other twenty-six stories now live only in the memories of everyone who ever rode shotgun with him, and that feels exactly right.

He wasn't a Ford man. Let the record show that. But in 1998 he came down with a severe case of Chrome Fever and bought a new Ford F-150 — not for the badge, mind you, but because it fit in the garage and had a console wide enough for Katie the dog to sit on and bark at cows on country drives. Mike Jernigan was a practical man when the situation called for it and easily entertained.

His pride and joy — the crown jewel — was a 1940 Chevrolet Special Deluxe four-door sedan that he and Bobbi restored by hand in their own garage. They drove it for thirty years with the Olympia Old Car Club before selling it in 2022, a parting that was, by all accounts, genuinely sad. And then there were the Metropolitans. Those small, quirky, irresistible little cars that — as any Metropolitan owner will tell you — are impossible to own just one of. Mike owned both a hardtop and a convertible, served as President of the Pacific Northwest Metropolitan Owners Club twice, sat on its board, and was serving as Vice President at the time of his passing. He helped run their annual Fix a Met event with the kind of quiet competence that keeps organizations running for decades.

Mike was preceded in death by his parents, his sister Sharon Clark, and his son Scott — losses that no sentence can adequately hold.

He is survived by the love of his life, Bobbi; his son Jeffrey; stepsons Justin Pierce (Shauna) and Jason Pierce (TJ); step-grandchildren Alex Fierce(JD) and Markas Pierce(Ally); and step-great-grandchildren Henry and Penelope, whom Mike had the gift of meeting just before he passed. He is also survived by his brothers Larry (Linda), Brian (Joyce), and Patrick, and by the memory of every dog who ever loved him, every car that ever ran right, and every clam dug on a good Pacific Northwest morning.

He died on April 20, 2026, at home, with Bobbi nearby. That is exactly as it should have been.

A celebration of Mike's life will be held at the LeMay Family Collection at Marymount, 325 152nd St E., Tacoma, WA 98445, on May 28th at 1:00 PM. Those with vintage cars are encouraged to bring them and park on the lawn out front — which is, honestly, the most Mike Jernigan send-off imaginable.

Mike will be laid to rest at the Orting Cemetery on May 29, 2026 at 10:00 am.

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