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Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Friend

Honored by:
Mr. Willard Guerrero

Aeronautical Engineer

On Jack's first day of school in Kansas in 1926, his teacher asked the class to draw a picture of what they wanted to be when they grew up. Jack drew an airplane and told his teacher, "I want to build these." And so began a lifetime devotion to aviation and aeronautical engineering.

Jack learned to fly before he was old enough to drive and at the age of 14 was flying crop dusters. His mother put an end to that when she found out, "Too dangerous!" So Jack started flying cargo out of Kansas City to airports throughout Kansas and into the surrounding states. When the authorities found out that Jack was not licensed to drive a car, they grounded him until he was 16 and old enough to get his driver's license.

He attended Kansas State University and graduated with an engineering degree in 1943. He tried to enlist in the armed forces, but was recruited instead to design aircraft for the war effort. After putting in a few years with the Curtis-Wright Company in Ohio, he moved to California and joined the North American Aviation Company. Jack was to spend 32 years with North American-later Rockwell International. Jack's expertise was in structural load engineering. While at North American he worked on a number of aircraft including the F-100 "Super Sabre", the F-107 "Delta Dagger", the B-45 "Tornado", X-15, and the B-l "Lancer". In his later years with Rockwell he was appointed to the Scientific Advisory Board of NASA, an elite group of engineers who were consulted in their areas of expertise.

Jack married Dorothy Reynolds of Jackson, Michigan in 1951 and together they raised three children. A sudden stroke ended his life in June, 1980.