Jack George Cooley

Jack was born and reared in Kansas City, graduating from Northeast High School in 1946, where he was very active in sports. He was the star center on the basketball team and played first string football the year Northeast took State Championships in both sports.

Jack married the love of his life, Alice Lorene Johnson, on October 3rd, 1947, with whom he enjoyed 76 years of very happy marriage. After high school, Jack went to work on the assembly line at the Vendo Company in old Northeast, spot-welding vending machine cabinets together. He also played basketball on the Vendo team.

Jack was a proud Korean War veteran, serving for two years (1952-1954) in the U.S. Army, where he was trained as a heavy equipment mechanic in a construction engineering battalion. He was honorably discharged as a corporal. He was forever grateful that his unit was deployed to Verdun, France – where his wife soon joined him!

After military service, Jack returned to Vendo, while taking advantage of the educational benefits of the GI Bill. By the time he left Vendo in 1973, when the company moved to California, Jack had advanced to Senior Project Engineer, completing the full life-cycle design of several pre- and post-mix vending machines. Project engineering at Vendo was his dream job. He then worked for J.F. Pritchard and Black & Veatch Engineers until retirement in 1989.

Jack supported his son in Scouts and was an honorary warrior in the tribe of Mic-o-Say. After retirement, Jack became a dedicated and accomplished woodworker, fabricating hundreds of beautiful projects for family and friends. He also loved to play golf, continuing with that sport until he was 88 years old. Jack was a lifelong sportsman, trout fisherman, and a member of the Deer Creek Sportsman’s Club for over 50 years. He served several terms as president of the Sportsman’s Club in the 1970s, during which time he led the construction of a modern clubhouse, still in use today.

Jack is survived by his wife Alice; son Jim (Julie) and daughter Joni (Craig) Williams; three grandchildren, Joshua (Courtney) Williams, Hayley (Bill) Castrop, and Nathan (Annie) Williams; and nine great-grandchildren.

A private Celebration of Life will be held by the family in January, with placing of cremains in a niche at Floral Hills Memorial Gardens in Raytown, Missouri.