Dr. Jack A. Sloane – Biography

(As read at memorial service by Dee Gillins)

Dr. Jack Agnew Adair Sloane was born November 13, 1927 in Oklahoma City, OK to Venita Ione Mondie (Sloane), a housewife, and Cecil Frederick Sloane, an oil dealer. Jack grew up in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma as an only child.

A favorite story of Jack’s occurred when he was five years old just after the Depression. His father was the talk of the neighborhood when he had a brand new car delivered by the dealership ~ his father’s pride and joy. Unbeknownst to Cecil, who had long been observed by his young son “Fixing” cars, Jack decided to surprise his father and “Fixed” his new car with a hammer.   So completely that the car had to be “Totaled” before it was ever driven.

About this same time Jack had been taken to see the movie “The Greatest Show On Earth” where he had observed a scene of a circus burning down. Jack had a toy circus that took up half of an entire room in the upstairs of their home.  Jack decided to burn his toy circus down … just like in the movie and ran down to tell the maid not to go upstairs that “Everything was okay”.  Not long after the maid smelled smoke and saved the family home.

Jack’s parents were fairly affluent and he grew up shadowing his father – a mover and shaker, as well as a socialite in the Oklahoma City area where his father was elected Potentate of the local India Shrine Temple.

Jack enjoyed time as a youngster in Eastern Oklahoma at his parent’s ranch where he rode horses and just plain enjoyed good ol’country life.

In high school he was captain of the swim team as well as captain of the football team and he also participated in a high school fraternity.

Jack entered the U.S. Navy in January of 1944 at the tail end of WW II.  Four Months after his entering the military his father passed away. An interesting note is that at the age of 16 he was not of legal age to serve in the military. Mysteriously an “Adjustment” was made to his birth certificate allowing him to become eligible to fulfill military obligations with a group of his peers and fellow countrymen.  This was important to Jack as all his older friends were leaving to fight the war and he did not want to be left behind. He wanted to serve his country.
He served the Navy as a aircraft maintenance technician and served on board the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Valley Forge As an aircraft cockpit avionics electrician.

Jack served in the Navy until 1949 and in the Reserves until 1950.

Jack also served in the Oklahoma Air National Guard from 1951 and 1952 and received an Honorable Discharge on April 29, 1952.

He was a Ham Radio enthusiast and operator.

In 1954 Jack married Shirley Glasgow in Golden Colorado.

Jack’s eldest Daughter, Teresa Sue was born in Oklahoma City, OK in December of 1955.
Teri was adopted by Larry Cassil and Shirley Glasgow and all remained close to the Sloane family in the ensuing years.

Jack graduated college in 1958 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Geology after attending Oklahoma City University, The Colorado School of Mines and Wichita State University.

He continued to be physically active during this time and developed enough of a skill at golf that he could have potentially turned pro with a little extra effort.

From 1958 until 1966 he worked in various capacities at various employers from the Cesna Aircraft Company in Wichita Kansas to dabbling in Aerospace Engineering, Life Insurance and Securities trading with Bache and Company.

During his time spent at Cesna he obtained a pilot’s license and traveled the country flying and selling airplanes ~ another hobby that he was passionate about.

Jack had developed quite an interest in flying while in the service and flew leisurely in private planes for many years.

Another one of Jack’s passions had always been sailing. He became adept at competitive racing and won many trophies over the course of several years. He owned a 19 foot “Flying Scott” Sailboat maintained at the Corinthian Yacht Club on White Rock Lake in Dallas, TX.  

Along with sailing Jack was an avid Fly Fishing enthusiast and the fish have “Called” to him from the whitewater as long as anyone who knows him can remember.

Jack married Linda Ray Montgomery on January 11, 1963 at Highland Park Presbyterian Church in Dallas, TX followed by a 10-day honeymoon in Acapulco, Mexico.

While in Texas, Jack formed his own Audio Visual company – Audio Visual Communications, Inc. in 1966 which began as a 1200 foot photographic studio near downtown Dallas where he did Still Catalog Photography and leisurely became quite accomplished as a photographer.  Later the company increased the area of their focus to include production and distribution of outdoor feature films-right up Jack’s alley.

Jack was active in the Masonic Order and achieved the rank of a 32^nd degree Mason and was also associated with the Shriner’s during this same time.

Jack and Linda’s first daughter Shari was born May 25, 1967 in Dallas, Texas and two years later an infant son Stephen was born.  Stephen survived 24 hours and returned to his heavenly home.

Shortly thereafter the Sloane family relocated to the small town of Evergreen in the Colorado mountains outside of Denver.

This was convenient for Jack who had been and continued to be an avid skier. He had many great tales to tell of his adventures and in fact met Linda for the first time in Dallas at a local I.K.S. ski club get-together.

Two sons followed for Jack and Linda in the years to come following their move to Colorado: Spencer in 1971 and Scott in 1973.

Jack had aspirations of becoming a restaurateur and was instrumental in launching a new concept fondue restaurant in Winter Park, Swiss House of Fondue, that was later purchased by the franchise organization Mr. Swiss of America.
Jack launched a brief career in real estate working in land and subdivision development. An interesting note is that the course work for a real estate license at that time was 40 hours of classroom training.

Jack and his family converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints while living in Evergreen, Colorado in 1974. Jack was baptized in the Tabernacle on Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah, by General Authority Hartman Rector, Jr.

He loved the Gospel of Jesus Christ and he persuaded his family to follow his footsteps and example in joining the Mormon Church baptizing them in short order.

Jack was also instrumental in helping his mother Venita convert to the church and obtain her temple endowments prior to her death in 1976.

Jack took out his own temple endowments and was sealed to his family by Hartman Rector, Jr. on April 29, 1977 in the Salt Lake City, Utah temple.

Shortly thereafter Jack decided he wanted to better serve the Lord and the Church and relocated his family yet again to the “Happy Valley” area of Utah-the town of Orem.

He began attending Brigham Young University in pursuit of a Master’s Degree in Religion which he did obtain.  

We cannot fail to mention that Dr. Sloane was a Die-Hard Fan of the Brigham Young University Cougar Football program. The Sloane family held season tickets practically every year during their time spent in Utah.

Jack began working on a Doctorate Degree in “Higher Education Administration” since one was not available in religion and it was during this time that he began teaching in the Ancient Scripture Department on a part time basis.

Jack wished to further his studies in Ancient Scripture and decided to take a 2 year hiatus from the United States in favor of some study-abroad time in the Holy Land where he lived with his family. He served in his Branch Presidency while in Jerusalem and was unofficially associated with BYU’s Study Abroad program.

Jack was stopped just short of completing his Dissertation due to a change in committee and course requirements. He also suffered a heart attack and at this same time Linda was diagnosed with breast cancer.

Here Jack began yet another venture….the race to cure his spouse.

During his research in this area, specifically into the holistic and natural medicine arenas, his interest was peaked to the point that he decided to relocate back to Dallas to attend Parker College of Chiropractic where he became one of the oldest graduates on record at the age of 66.

We are happy to report that because of his special gifts and dedication in this area that Linda has been cancer free for more than 15 years.  Jack is the reason that she is here today.

Dr. Sloane at the age most people retire, developed a limited Chiropractic, holistic and Nutrition practice, that was quite profitable and helped countless many individuals along the way. 

He retired officially in 2005 and continued his mission of helping those in need until the time of his death.

He served in three different temples as a veil and ordinance worker throughout his lifetime and had hoped to embark on a mission for the church in the not too far off future.

The family is shocked and saddened by his death but realizes that there is a bigger plan.

Dr. Sloane will be missed by all who ever had the pleasure to know him.