January 31, 1945 - February 28, 2013
Born and raised in Dawson Creek, BC, Jack left at 15 years old for Vancouver, eventually making his way to Alberta by his early 20s. Jack attended NAIT and started his career as a heavy duty mechanic for various prairie trucking companies after graduation. He later worked at Gardner Denver for 15 years as a mechanic and millwright. His thorough understanding of his products and customers helped him move into sales, for which he had a natural talent.
In the oil and gas bust years of the early 1980s, Jack and long time friend Ray Riopel started Kov-R-All Mechanical and made it a success. Iron Horse Compression grew out of that success in the early 1990s.
Introduced through a mutual friend, Jack met his wife Shirley at a Grey Cup party in 1985. He hesitantly accepted the role of stepfather to Shirley’s two daughters, and eventually settled into a family life of summer vacations, ski trips and monitoring that no one walked on the carpet in their bare feet.
Jack retired from work in 2010 and looked forward to a retirement that would include travelling, watching sports on a big screen TV, and spending time with his grandsons in Vancouver. He lost his battle with prostate cancer on February 28, 2013. His larger than life presence will be missed by wife Shirley; daughters Shawna (Brad) Quinton and Sara Moore; grandsons Jimmy and Patrick Quinton; sisters Barb (Denis) Cuthbert and Trish (Glen) Forster and their families; in-laws Jim and Audrey Bassani.
A Celebration of Life for Jack will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Thursday, April 11, 2013 at Hainstock’s Funeral Home, 9810 34 Avenue in Edmonton.
The family would like to make a heartfelt thank you to Dr. Amigo and staff of Unit 43 at the Grey Nuns Hospital for their excellent care and compassion during Jack’s last month. In memory of Jack, donations may be made to Unit 43 Palliative Care, Grey Nuns Hospital c/o Caritas Foundation, 3C60 11111 Jasper Avenue, Edmonton, AB T5K 0L4.
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