Like others in the "greatest generation," he grew up in the shadow of the great depression and at age 18, soon after his high school graduation in 1943, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps and began two years of training as a bomber navigator.

He would have been in the next wave of air attacks on Japan, had the war not ended in August, 1945.

Benefitting from the GI Bill, Jack entered Hiram College in Ohio in 1946, where he began his pursuit of a higher degree in chemistry and developed his lifelong love of learning. Jack pursued his master's degree at Cornell, and then to Philadelphia suburbs where he finished his Ph.D. at University of Pennsylvania and started his career in chemistry working at Rohm and Haas.

In the late 1950's, Jack made a major career move to the world of academia when he accepted a faculty position with the Chemistry department at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan. This began a 25-year career at MSU, where Jack's leadership capabilities and administrative skills helped usher him quickly from faculty member to Chair of the department, and then into university administration as an assistant provost. In addition to producing 25 Ph.D's, along the way, he undertook two sabbaticals in the Netherlands and in France, and traveled to India, Thailand, and Iran to help local universities establish or modernize chemistry departments.

In 1982, Jack moved to Arizona when Jack accepted a position as Vice President for Academic Affairs at Arizona State University. Charged with helping ASU shift to a higher reputational status as the state grew rapidly in the 1980's, Jack oversaw the re-organization of many of the academic departments at ASU over his five years there. He was also very active in representing ASU at Board functions, with the legislature, and at several premier sport events.

In 1987, Jack accepted the presidency of the Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine (CCOM) and the Chicago Osteopathic Hospital Systems (COHS) in Hyde Park, Chicago. During his eight years there, Jack dramatically repositioned the organization by selling off the hospitals, opening a pharmacy school in Downers Grove, turning CCOM into Midwestern University and creating a new, greenfield campus of Midwestern in Phoenix.

Following his retirement from Midwestern in 1995, Jack moved with his wife, Gladys, to Kearney, Nebraska, where she became Chancellor of the University of Nebraska branch there. In 2000 when she retired, they both moved back to a new home they had built in north Scottsdale, to settle into a busy life of post-career positions with developmental and leadership institutions, caretaking for aging family members, active participation in the First Institutional Baptist Church in Phoenix, and frequent global travel. 

Jack is survived by his son and his wife and step-grandson; his daughter and her husband; two grandchildren; and four great grandchildren.

A celebration of his life was held on May 17 at the Desert Gardens United Church of Christ in Sun City West. Any donations can be made in his name to Hiram College.