A Habit, Not a Resume Line

Jack graduated from Warren Wilson College in the class of 1978, a school that has required a service project of every graduate for more than 67 years. Whether that habit was already in him or the school helped cement it, community service has run through nearly everything he’s done since.

Early Roots

Jack’s first sustained community work came through the Synod of the Trinity, serving Pennsylvania and West Virginia, where he helped develop the Economic Regeneration Program.

Around the same period, he found himself in genuinely remarkable company: working alongside John Knight of the Urban Institute, Medard Gabel of World Game, Howard Brown of Resource Planning and Management, futurist Hazel Henderson, and Bob Rodale of Rodale Press.

On the aquaculture side, he collaborated with William McClarney and Ron Zweig of the New Alchemy Institute, and with Doug Strange and Steven van Gorder of Rodale, and led a composting workshop with Bob Diener of the National Environmental Training Center.

In the Peace Corps

From 1978 to 1980, Jack served as an aquaculture expert in Nepal within the Nepalese Extension Service, building fish ponds, breeding fish, and educating farming communities on aquaculture practices, a direct, hands-on kind of service that set the tone for everything that followed.

Disaster Response and Recovery

Jack has deployed with the American Red Cross across hurricanes, tornadoes, fires, and droughts, trained in mass care, and spent twenty years as a Red Cross water safety instructor and lifeguard trainer.

He’s also brought that instinct into longer-term recovery work, partnering with the Lowlander Institute and Church World Services to build shelter, transportation, aquaculture, and renewable energy systems for climate refugees and indigenous communities in Louisiana.

Building for Others

Jack has helped build roughly a dozen homes for Habitat for Humanity in North Carolina, and designed the J Deck House for Habitat for Humanity West Virginia.

Civil Air Patrol

As a Safety Officer and volunteer instructor in the Civil Air Patrol, Jack has reached Level 5 and earned the Gill Robb Wilson Award, CAP’s highest honor for senior member professional development, itself a recognition built on years of volunteer service to the organization and the community it serves.

Sharing What He Builds

Jack is a Presbyterian elder, and spent 33 years as a minister’s spouse, another kind of quiet, ongoing service that often goes unnoticed.

He founded the Triad Electric Vehicle Association and helped organize its “Odyssey” showcases event in Greensboro. He developed the STEM Cycle project, engaging students in building small electric vehicles from 2014 to 2018. And every Wednesday, he shows up for Home Power Hour, a volunteer effort in its own right, sharing sustainability knowledge with anyone willing to tune in.

Community service, for Jack, has never been separate from his other work; it’s often the same work, aimed at someone else’s benefit.