Jonathan David Baars

Jonathan David Baars, 46, returned to his heavenly home on January 20, 2020, after a valiant battle with sarcoidosis. His devotion to his family and his firm belief in God supported him in his struggle and ultimately gave him peace.

Jonathan was born to David and Carole Baars, in West Allis, WI on October 21, 1973.  Jonathan attended St. Paul’s Lutheran School in West Allis and Martin Luther High School in Greendale.  During his time at Martin Luther, Jonathan was a member of the Symphonic Band and was able to tour the country sharing his gift of playing the baritone with others.  Jonathan was a life-long member of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in West Allis.

Jonathan had a great career for FIS, formerly Metavante, where he worked for more than 16 years.  Jonathan was gifted in all things-computer.  From water-cooling a CPU to overclocking a hard drive for faster gaming performance to system recovery after a system failure, Jonathan was the guy you wanted.  Jonathan also had a great gift for systems construction and execution.  And if you ever needed an opinion on which technology product to purchase or where to find a deal, you for sure wanted to reach out to Jonathan.  Jonathan and his brother, Michael, did a lot of work on computer systems for many years.

Jonathan also had a heart of gold.  He loved nothing more than surprising his nieces with trinkets and candy and giving the perfect gift to family at birthdays and holidays.  Jonathan became known for the surprise Santa Sacks that would provide a myriad of out-of-the ordinary surprise gifts.  Jonathan loved the Green Bay Packers, the Milwaukee Brewers and Monster energy drinks.  Jonathan was also an avid fan of movies and the bands Nine Inch Nails and KMFDM.  Jonathan and Michael would regularly watch movies and dissect them, discussing every morsel of the plot and execution.

Jonathan was also a great teller of stories and would keep everyone entertained.  Every Saturday, Jonathan had lunch with his parents.  One of the highlights of the week was for Carole and David to hear about the adventures of Jonathan’s good friend, Brad, during lunch.

Jonathan is survived by his parents, David and Carole Baars; his brother and sister-in-law Michael and Kristy Baars; his niece Carolyn; his niece and goddaughter Micah; his uncle and aunt Frederick and Debby Ganaway; cousins, Brian and Irina Ganaway, Andrew and Angela Ganaway, Noel Cook, Neil Cook, Cheryl Cook, and Mike and Lori Cook; and many good friends including Louise Sturgill, Angela Bertoni, Brad Keller, and Kevin Sinjakovic just to name a few.  He is preceded in death by his cousin, Kathryn Ganaway.

Visitation at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, 7821 West Lincoln Avenue, West Allis, Wisconsin, on Sunday, January 26, 2020, from 2:00 PM – 3:45 PM. Service at 4:00 PM. Private burial at Arlington Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, memorials appreciated to the Foundation for Sarcoidosis Research, at stopsarcoidosis.org.