Marble Falls couple thrive on faith, family, model trains

By Darci Swisher | Correspondent

Jack Merkel is passionate about many things, but the three things at the top of the list are his love of faith, family and trains.
“I grew up in a very strong Catholic family,” said Merkel, 81, a member of St. John the Evangelist Parish in Marble Falls with his wife, Carol. “Being married to a Catholic woman who’s also strong in her faith helps enormously.”
College sweethearts, the Merkels married and moved from Ohio to Texas for Merkel’s job at the company now known as Texas Exxon Mobile Corp. They soon started their family, which eventually grew to include two daughters and five sons — and 15 grandchildren.
Although the family pinballed between Texas and New Jersey because of Merkel’s work, they made sure their children received a Catholic education, just as they had through grade school, high school and, in his wife’s case, Catholic nursing school.
In Houston, “we moved to a more center section of town because that’s where the Catholic schools were,” Merkel said. “We had a Catholic grade school there and both the Catholic high schools, girls and boys, were a mile from the house.”
Their dedication to Catholic education has continued long past their children’s graduations. They generously support multiple endowments that benefit Catholic schools as well as Diocese of Austin campaigns, like the Catholic Services Appeal and the Encountering Christ Campaign, which included the creation of a scholarship endowment fund as well as additional funding for an endowment for equipment and technology upgrades in diocesan schools.
They are also devoted to pro-life causes, participating in marches, praying the rosary outside abortion clinics and contributing to an organization that purchases pro-life advertising on billboards. In addition, the two are supporters and listeners of Catholic radio, even rounding up a group to purchase a radio station KBMD in Marble Falls, which is now part of the Guadalupe Radio Network.
“It’s a great way to spread the faith,” he said. “There are many, many people who came to the Catholic Church because they stumbled across the Catholic radio station.”
The Merkels tune in themselves every afternoon. “The Divine Mercy Chaplet comes on at three o’clock. We stop what we’re doing and pray, listening to the radio station. They’ve got a fun musical version they sing.”
Wherever they are, the couple prays the rosary together daily at 9:30 p.m., a tradition they started many years ago, when one of their sons was in the hospital.
Merkel said they were devastated when the coronavirus pandemic suspended in-person worship, as they attend Mass every Sunday and Thursday without fail. The livestreamed Masses from their parish kept them connected but did not satisfy their “need for the Eucharist,” he explained.
Being involved with his parish has always been important. Merkel has served as a Eucharistic minister and adult altar server and on building, festival and bazaar committees during his younger years. His involvement with the ACTS Retreat program at his parish in the early 2000s led to him leading similar retreats in prisons.
“The prisoners need some kind of help to get them back and improving their relationship with the Lord,” he said.
Through the Diocese of Austin’s Restorative Justice Ministry, he continues to lead retreats as well as weekly programs. In turn, his faith as well as his understanding have been strengthened through the video series he shows inmates, he said.
Retirement has also given Merkel, a model railroader, the opportunity to further expand his lifelong love of trains. The room above their garage houses a 25-feet by 26-feet railroad he built after the Santa Fe from Galveston to Temple in 1961 — the year he was married and moved to Texas.
“I operate it with a crew of seven people,” he said. “We run like a real railroad. I’ve got a dispatcher and we operate freight trains and passenger trains, and we operate by schedule. Everything moves with a purpose. Nothing runs around just in circles.”
As a member of the Austin Model Railroad Society, he is helping to model the capital as it existed in 1965, “track for track, building for building.” The project started four years ago and will take another 10 to complete.
Upon retirement, he and his wife set an ambitious goal: to camp 100 nights a year. Between these trips and those they took with their children as they were growing up, they have now visited every state — including driving to Alaska during a two-month trip — and are drawn to the national parks and the Western U.S.
“A lot of that involves stopping and visiting railroads and different museums, railroad museums, actual operating railroads here, there and everywhere,” he said. “Some of the buildings in my railroad are pictures I’ve taken of buildings that I’ve seen when we’ve been traveling around.”
Although he did not pass on the model railroading gene to his children and grandchildren, Merkel is grateful to his wife who is always by his side.
“She does not actually build anything on the railroad itself, but she helps in that she willingly goes along with all this stuff,” he said.
Together Jack and Carol look forward to each new day, grounded in their faith and love, with a few trains thrown in for good measure.