MEREDITH JAY HENDRICKS
June 20, 1941 – June 5, 2024
Bakersfield – Meredith Jay Hendricks passed away on June 5, 2024, in Bakersfield, California. He was born to Dr. Meredith Jewell Hendricks, DDS, and Lorraine Carter Hendricks on June 20, 1941.
A storyteller at heart, Meredith packed more adventures into his 82 years on earth than most best-selling thrillers.
Except for his college years, Meredith spent his entire life in Bakersfield. He attended Franklin Elementary School, Bakersfield Junior Academy, and graduated from East Bakersfield High School in 1959. He attended the former Pasadena College (now Point Loma University) with bachelor's and master's degrees in education. After teaching high school for two years, he realized wrangling teenagers wasn't his ideal career. So, he followed his father's footsteps to the dental industry and became a Dental Laboratory Technician. Meredith owned his own dental lab, Hendricks Gold and Ceramic Studio, in Bakersfield from 1969 until his retirement in 2017.
Meredith struck gold on a blind date set up by his dad and married the lovely Linda Joy Hare, a dental hygienist, on February 6, 1971. Celebrating more than five decades of marriage this year, their love proves that blind dates can sometimes lead to happily ever after.
Despite his shorter stature, Meredith was a true sportsman, mastering just about every sport he tried. He was proficient at horse riding, shooting sports, snow skiing, bowling, fishing, hockey, scuba diving, wind surfing, tennis, golf, and motorcycle riding. In addition, he played for his high school football team and college baseball team, and was an award winning go kart driver and builder as well as a champion water skier.
He also had a love of travel, circling the globe both before and after marriage, visiting various countries in Europe, Asia, North- and Central- America, plus logging countless miles on highways around the United States.
Meredith was a natural craftsman with his hands and known as “Mr. Fix it” to his family and friends. From engines and electrical to plumbing and carpentry– no feat was too large.
Meredith freely shared his talents with others. Of note, he was a past president of the Bakersfield Active 20/30 Club, a member of Bakersfield West Rotary Club, and volunteered for more than 35 years with Kern County 4-H's youth development programs, in addition to lending a hand to many other organizations in the area.
He shared his love of sport with his two daughters, and competitive horseback riding became his family's focus during the 1980s and 90s. The family crisscrossed the U.S., snagging multiple world and state championship titles and creating lasting memories. Meredith's insatiable desire to help others drove him to voluntarily build, design and manage complex obstacle and jumping courses for horse events, supporting 4-H, the local Paint Horse club, and the Kern County Fair. Even after his daughters retired from competition, he continued volunteering and supporting youth horse shows for over two decades.
An animal lover with a weakness for ice cream and baked potatoes, Meredith had a particular fondness for anything peanut-related–except smooth peanut butter, which he despised. His favorite past time included watching John Wayne movies or old western TV shows, often while munching on a big bowl of popcorn.
Meredith was a guy who'd give you the shirt off his back, crack a joke, and fix your leaky faucet all in one visit. His heart was as big as his toolbox, and his giving nature impacted thousands of lives in Kern County.
Meredith leaves behind Linda, his wife of 53 years. His legacy lives on in his two daughters: Misty Hendricks, DDS, who followed in her dad and grandfather's footsteps and entered the dental field; and Laine Hendricks (and her partner, Jenny), who is a chronic volunteer and public servant, supporting various nonprofit organizations and serving as a District Governor for Rotary International.
A celebration of his life will be held on Friday, June 21, at 1:00pm. For details and to RSVP, please call or text 661-205-4333 by June 14 (to ensure enough space for all of his fans).
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that you do something nice for someone else, unexpectedly and without explanation. If that's not your style, consider a donation to one of Meredith's favorite charities: ASPCA or Kern County 4-H. Meredith would have loved any of these gestures.
Here's to Meredith Jay Hendricks–a man who lived large, laughed often, and left a mark on every heart he touched. His is the definition of a life well-lived!