Jack lived across the street from me on Lively Drive from the summer after fourth grade when we moved there until he went to school in Austin and we lost touch. He spent a lot of time at our house. He taught my brother the rules of Chess and they used to play that and Army with little green plastic figures. I remember riding to school with Jack in David Driers car. They saved me many morning bus rides. Jack was a serious soul with a brilliant mind and I will always remember him.
Jack was so damn smart I think his brain exploded. He was like one of those top-end dragsters that are always on the ragged edge between setting a record in the quarter mile or leaving pistons on the pavement. I remember in the ninth grade his spending hours working on an astronaut questionnaire he thought would be needed for long-term space travel. Senior year he and I went to St. Mary's University for one of the first computer programming classes, I think it was FORTRAN II, but the lecturer was boring so we spent the time trying to copy a five dollar bill for counterfeiting purposes. Thus ended two promising careers in the computer industry. Luckily, we didn't complete enough of the bill to end up in jail.
Jack and I were good friends for many years, but we grew apart in the 1970s. He was very smart, but also very sad and insecure, and he had trouble making friends after high school.
According to his sister Dorothy, Jack died of a rare blood disease. I think it may have been caused by something that happened to him while he was a student at Washington University in St. Louis that perhaps no one among the Lee alumni except me knows about.
After college, Jack would sometimes stare off into space and mutter, "...and then they turned on the machine." He wouldn't tell me what that was all about, and it started to irritate me.
Finally, however, he told his story:
While at Washington U., he said, he was doing something or other inside a particle accelerator. The operators of the machine didn't realize he was in there and they closed the door and turned on the particle beam. I don't know how long Jack was inside the accelerator, but he evidently was exposed to high-energy X-rays (synchrotron radiation) for some period until he was able to get out.
Assuming this was a true story, I think Jack felt that he was living with the cloud of death hovering over him.
Sorry for the depressing post, but I thought this tale was worth telling.
David Dreier, I can't thank you enough for posting your entry about Jack. It made his life so very poignant. I admired Jack a lot and found him to be a kind and gentle soul. It was easy to get him to smile if you tickled his intellect and let him know you had respect for where his frame of "reference" was at. And, yes, he looked great in his toga at the party the Latin Club had. We all had such a fun time. Bless you for being there for him.
Barbara Fletcher (O'Connor)
Jack lived across the street from me on Lively Drive from the summer after fourth grade when we moved there until he went to school in Austin and we lost touch. He spent a lot of time at our house. He taught my brother the rules of Chess and they used to play that and Army with little green plastic figures. I remember riding to school with Jack in David Driers car. They saved me many morning bus rides. Jack was a serious soul with a brilliant mind and I will always remember him.
Chris Marrou
Jack was so damn smart I think his brain exploded. He was like one of those top-end dragsters that are always on the ragged edge between setting a record in the quarter mile or leaving pistons on the pavement. I remember in the ninth grade his spending hours working on an astronaut questionnaire he thought would be needed for long-term space travel. Senior year he and I went to St. Mary's University for one of the first computer programming classes, I think it was FORTRAN II, but the lecturer was boring so we spent the time trying to copy a five dollar bill for counterfeiting purposes. Thus ended two promising careers in the computer industry. Luckily, we didn't complete enough of the bill to end up in jail.
David Dreier
Jack and I were good friends for many years, but we grew apart in the 1970s. He was very smart, but also very sad and insecure, and he had trouble making friends after high school.
According to his sister Dorothy, Jack died of a rare blood disease. I think it may have been caused by something that happened to him while he was a student at Washington University in St. Louis that perhaps no one among the Lee alumni except me knows about.
After college, Jack would sometimes stare off into space and mutter, "...and then they turned on the machine." He wouldn't tell me what that was all about, and it started to irritate me.
Finally, however, he told his story:
While at Washington U., he said, he was doing something or other inside a particle accelerator. The operators of the machine didn't realize he was in there and they closed the door and turned on the particle beam. I don't know how long Jack was inside the accelerator, but he evidently was exposed to high-energy X-rays (synchrotron radiation) for some period until he was able to get out.
Assuming this was a true story, I think Jack felt that he was living with the cloud of death hovering over him.
Sorry for the depressing post, but I thought this tale was worth telling.
Jean Carter
David Dreier, I can't thank you enough for posting your entry about Jack. It made his life so very poignant. I admired Jack a lot and found him to be a kind and gentle soul. It was easy to get him to smile if you tickled his intellect and let him know you had respect for where his frame of "reference" was at. And, yes, he looked great in his toga at the party the Latin Club had. We all had such a fun time. Bless you for being there for him.