John Taylor Fort Sr.

Born September 8, 1924 – Called home with the Lord to reunite with his beloved wife March 27, 2016.

Born with his twin sister, Anna Catherine at home on Lindsley Ave. in Dallas, Texas to Tandy Irwin Fort and Anna Robinson Fort.

Longtime Dallas resident and graduate of O.M. Roberts Elementary, J.L. Long Jr. High, and Woodrow Wilson High School (wWw Wildcats), class of ’42.

After graduating from Woodrow in 1942, he worked for Sears Roebuck in the repair shops as a head mechanic for all types of equipment and farm machinery. In 1943 he enlisted in the U.S. Navy and achieved the rank of Aviation Machinist's Mate Second Class. He had been admitted to Naval Air Corps Flight Training at Murray State Teacher's College in Murray, Kentucky but when the war ended he chose to be honorably discharged, having lost his brother, Lt. Paul Irwin Fort (Army Air Corps), who was shot down in March of 1945 while piloting a C-47 paratroop transport in the crossing of the Rhine at Wesel, Germany.

After WWII he traveled with the Billy Graham Campus Crusades along with his new friend Howard Butt, Jr. and he later attended Southern Methodist University in Dallas to follow a call to be in the ministry. While studying at SMU, he took a part-time job with the Herman Boettcher Organ Company, a pipe organ builder in Dallas where he later became full-time for a total of eight years. He soon realized he had found his life calling with a career that combined all his talents and interests in the ministry, music, and mechanics. In 1958 he decided to form his own pipe organ building business, the John T. Fort Organ Co. and, at the time of his passing, was still acting as Director Emeritus after a career span of 66 years in the pipe organ building and service business and occasionally traveling with son, Paul, the current Director of the re-named Fort Organ Company.

He is a member of Wilshire Baptist Church, Dallas and a longtime former member of East Grand Baptist Church, Dallas.

He was formerly an active member and President of the Parker County Heritage Society. He has been a lifetime vintage car collector and avid member of the Horseless Carriage Club of Dallas and Model T Ford Club of Fort Worth.

He and his family spent the kids formative years traveling all over the eastern U.S. and 11 countries in Europe and with a passel of other East Grand families enjoying waterskiing all over Texas and Arkansas and snow skiing in New Mexico. He and his wife were avid travelers to every state in the U.S.A., Europe, Canada, Mexico, and Central America, generally with other friends who were EGB parents.

He has resided at his home in Weatherford, Texas since 1988 and was still residing there aside from a brief stint in the hospital and lastly a rehabilitation hospital, in hopes of returning home again.

He is preceded in death by his beloved wife of 56 years, Zulette Jane Phillips Fort. He is survived by his twin sister, Anna Smith and family, two sons, Paul Irwin Fort and wife, Cynthia Kim Fort, and John Taylor Fort, Jr., and a daughter, Cynthia Jane Goldsmith and husband, Darrell R. Goldsmith. He has one granddaughter, Devin Nicole Goldsmith and her fiancé Ryan Fowler. By the marriage of Paul and Cynthia, he also has one step-granddaughter, Anna Bird, and husband, Michael Bird, and one step-grandson, Matthew Wimberly. He has one step-great granddaughter, Jocelyne Jones, and one step-great grandson, Samuel Bird.

Visitation will be at 6:00-8:00 PM Friday 4/1/16 at Grove Hill Funeral Home, Dallas and Funeral service will be at 1:00 PM Saturday 4/2/16 at Wilshire Baptist Church - Main Sanctuary, Dallas TX.