Jack Adamson

Jack Everett Adamson passed away on November 29, 2016 in Northridge, California at age 94, with his wife, Marjorie and only daughter, Diane at his side. Jack was born on October 16, 1922 in Rock Port, the county seat of Atchison County, Missouri to Vern Dallas and Kathryn Phoebe (Zieke) Adamson. His parents both had relatives living there and had moved to Missouri from Iowa soon after World War I. Jack had one brother, Robert (Bob) who was 13 months older and predeceased Jack by 5 years. Jack also has one living half-brother, J.C. Adamson who currently resides in Denver, Colorado. When Jack was four or five years old, the family moved to Pawhuska, Oklahoma to try and benefit from the oil riches acquired by the Osage Indian Tribe. It was there he started elementary school and took his first airplane ride in a Flying Jennie. After his parents divorced in the spring of 1929, Jack’s mother took her two sons and moved to Kansas City, Missouri where her father, mother and two sisters lived. In Kansas City, Jack attended and graduated from Rollins Grade School, Westport Jr. High and Westport High School. He, his brother and friends were very active in the Boy Scouts and attained Eagle Scout level. In addition, Jack served as a swimming instructor as well as obtaining his Junior and Senior Life Saving certificates. Jack started working at a young age, selling Cool Aid on hot days, magazines and bags of potato chips door to door in the apartment complexes near where he lived. He worked at the local movie theatre and used his bicycle to deliver clothing for a dry-cleaning firm, chickens for a poultry retailer, ice cream for an ice cream store and groceries for a small grocery store. He also had a job selling Christmas trees and a job demonstrating macaroni at food markets in various locations in Kansas City. He loved to play baseball, touch football and tennis with his friends and got good grades in school. He attended Huff Business school after high school and then took a course at International Business Machines (I.B.M) on how to operate a numerical calculator after which he got a job at Kansas City Fire & Marine Insurance Company. Six months later, on December 7th, 1941, “Pearl Harbor” happened and Jack joined the U.S. Navy as a paymaster in Little Creek, Virginia. He also was part of the Navy V-12 program, a college program for potential Navy officers. After World War II ended, Jack moved to South Pasadena, California and became a commercial Insurance Broker for over thirty years. In 1949, he married his beautiful bride, Marjorie Lore and they moved to the new community of Reseda, California which was full of young veterans and their families. After having their daughter, Diane, in 1961 they moved to their custom built house and large half-acre garden where he spent the rest of his 55 years building various projects, gardening and maintaining their lovely home. In his insurance business, he was a volunteer speaker at the Small Business Administration’s various workshops. At age 37, Jack became the youngest president of the Insurance Brokers Exchange of California (IBAC) since the organization’s inception in 1906. After retiring from the insurance brokerage business, Jack received his Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration at California State University, Northridge (CSUN) and started working in 1981 as a financial appraiser for a national firm. He ended up managing the team before permanently retiring in 1989. Jack also was active in the Wilshire Kiwanis Club in Los Angeles from 1955 – 1967 and was president of the club in 1963. Jack, Margie and Diane took several nice vacations together as a family including Alaska, Hawaii, Canada, Baja California and Europe as well as the continental United States. He is already very much missed by his family and friends.