John Morgan Pinkerton

John Morgan "Jack" Pinkerton died Saturday, 17 November 2018, at the age of 91, succumbing after a number of years to the cumulative effects of a stroke and progressive aphasia. At the time of his death, he was surrounded by the family whom he loved and who loved him without bounds.

The only child of Katharine Ewin Pinkerton and Henry Rolffs Pinkerton, Jack was born 18 July 1927, in Franklin, Tennessee. An Eagle Scout, Jack graduated from Franklin's Battle Ground Academy and served in the United States Navy at the end of World War II. He graduated in 1950 with a degree in Civil Engineering from Vanderbilt University, where he was a varsity cheerleader and member of Sigma Chi and Tau Beta Pi. Jack took a job with Beers Construction which brought him to Atlanta in 1952.

In 1953, Jack married the former Susanne Neal. Two years later, they started a family. In 1955 Jack also started a business with Arthur P. Laws, The Pinkerton and Laws Company, which grew to be one of the 200 largest construction companies in America by the time he retired in the mid-1980's. As both his family and his business grew, Jack pursued a number of interests, acquiring his private pilot's license, taking up golf, canoeing, trail hiking and snow skiing, and beginning a rich tradition of family trips, foreign and domestic, which he joyfully spent untold hours planning. Jack's life-long love for the southern Appalachian mountains, formed during his childhood summers at Camp Sequoyah in North Carolina, drew him to Lake Burton where he would enjoy time with his family over the course of the next six decades.

Raised in the Methodist church, Jack remained active in the church as long as he was able. For many years, he served the Brookvalley Church as an elder and Sunday School teacher. Subsequently, he served Northwest Presbyterian Church in similar capacities. His interest in theology led him to enroll in Emory University's Candler School of Theology, which awarded him a Master of Theological Studies degree in 1979. It was at Candler that he met two professors for whom he had a great deal of respect and affection, John Hays and Max Miller. With Miller, Jack co-directed the Archaeological Survey of Moab, spending the summers of 1978, 1979 and 1982 in the region east of the Dead Sea, locating over 400 previously unrecognized sites with identifiable archaeological artifacts.

Jack was active in the Atlanta, Cobb County, German-American and French-American Chambers of Commerce, the Georgia-Korea Economic Council, the Japan-America Society of Georgia, the Japan-Southeast U.S. Association and the Society of International Business Fellows. He was a member of a number of state-sponsored trade missions to Asian and European countries. He also served on a number of boards of directors, including that of Pace Academy where he served as Chairman of the Board.

It was in his retirement, though, that Jack's love of Atlanta showed itself most clearly. Jack created and taught a graduate-level ethics course in the College of Management at Georgia Tech. In 1988, he became one of the first full-time volunteers for the Atlanta Organizing Committee, chairing the bid preparation committee for the 1996 Olympic Games.

After Atlanta was awarded the Games, Jack briefly worked for the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games. Later, Jack joined the Corporation for Olympic Development in Atlanta, the City-sponsored organization responsible for the massive street, pedestrian and infrastructure improvements in downtown Atlanta, where he oversaw bidding, construction and schedules.

After the Olympics ended, the Atlanta Public School system asked Jack to help them with $400 million in renovation projects. Following that effort, he donated his services to the Piedmont Park Conservancy to implement its master plan, to civic efforts to renovate a Buckhead park, to the Fairlie-Poplar Task Force to make streetscape improvements in the Fairlie Poplar district, and to Early Learning Property Management to remodel older buildings to house new Head Start programs.

Jack's involvement in those civic projects was often essential to their success, giving the business community and large donors confidence in the sponsoring organization's ability to complete the project. Jack was known both for his integrity and for his straight forward approach to life -- annoyed by bureaucracy and disinclined to over think decisions, Jack's philosophy was "Do it and be done with it."

In all of those retirement "jobs," Jack refused to accept any salary, believing that his service was a way of giving back to the city that had given him so much, but often joking that if the organization was not paying him, they could hardly object to his occasional absence as he took yet another trip with his wife or family.

A list of public accomplishments is never the full measure of a man's character, and especially not in Jack's case. Those fortunate enough to know him personally knew him to be a kind, humble and generous man of deep faith, a good and caring listener, a thoughtful mentor, a devoted husband, father, grandfather and friend, and more.

Jack is survived by his wife of 65 years, Susanne Neal Pinkerton, by his four children, Jill Huitron and her husband, Daniel, Michael Pinkerton and his wife, Claire, Katharine Williams and her husband, John, and Molly Caine and her husband, Matthew, all of Atlanta, and by eight grandchildren, John Cadenhead, Courtney Cadenhead, Max Huitron, Megan Williams, Matt Williams, Charlie Williams, Grayson Caine and Haseley Caine, and by three great-grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held at 11 o'clock Monday morning, 26 November, at Northwest Presbyterian Church, 4300 Northside Drive, Atlanta, Georgia. In lieu of flowers, donations in his memory may be made to your church or to the civic charity of your choice.